ICC Women’s T20 World Cup-Spinners Help Sri Lanka to Win the first Match against South Africa

In the Group A 1^st Match Sri Lankan Women won by three runs and shocked South Africa (Host of this Year’s, 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup). Sri Lankan spinners strangled the South African batters. The best performer from the South African side was Sune Luus, captain of South Africa who scored 28 runs out of 27 balls in a chase of 130 runs target. All other batters of South Africa have thrown the chance by not using their feet against the spinners. They could have performed better with wickets in hand but wasn’t to be. The first win at home could have boosted their morale as they have to face New Zealand and Australia next, which is going to be challenging for them.

The Player of the match was the Sri Lankan Skipper, Chamari Athapaththu who scored 68 runs and helped her team to set a respectable target which was good enough to win the match. In her interview she said, “Just play my natural game when I'm in the middle and focus on the next game as well. We have good culture in the team. We share a lot of knowledge and always think about the game. I think 140-150 was a good score, but unfortunately we couldn't get there. We upset some big teams on a couple of occasions, and this time we want to play good cricket and try to go to the semi-finals. This is my 8th T20 World Cup and I hope I can do better and help my team reach the semis. Really happy to see a lot of crowd here, it's a good thing for women's cricket.”

South African skipper, Sune Luus also thanked the crowd for turning up, in large number. She said in her interview, “Chasing 130 was a par score, I thought even 140-150 was chaseable. One game doesn't define a team, still a long way to go and there are a lot of positives today. Our powerplay bowling was excellent today and obviously a few chipping in with the bat, so lot of positives going into the next couple of games.”

Hope the host nation will come back well in the next game. On 11^th February it will be the doubleheader.

The matches for tomorrow are  

1. West Indies Women vs England Women, 2nd Match, Group B, live from Boland Park, Paarl, 6:30 PM IST (01:00 PM GMT / 03:00 PM LOCAL)

2. Australia Women vs New Zealand Women, 3rd Match, Group A, Boland Park, Paarl, 10:30 PM IST (05:00 PM GMT / 07:00 PM LOCAL)

Stay tuned for more info……..