South Africa bowl in Women's T20 World Cup curtain-raiser

Posted By on February 10, 2023

Toss South Africa chose to bowl vs Sri Lanka

South Africa have won the toss and chosen to bowl in the opening match of the Women’s T20 World Cup, against Sri Lanka, in Cape Town.

The hosts will look to contain Sri Lanka captain and opener Chamari Athapaththu early on a pitch that is expected to be on the slow side, with help from Nonkululeko Mlaba who recently moved to No. 2 on the ICC’s T20I bowlers’ rankings behind fellow left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone of England.
But Athapaththu suggested on the eve of the tournament that her opponents would bear the brunt of expectations as the host nation and encouraged her side’s younger players – like fellow opener Harshitha Samarawickrama and Under-19 captain Vishmi Gunaratne – to play with freedom.

Play was set to begin in gloriously sunny and hot conditions as a marching band, dancers and fireworks heralded the start of the tournament before a healthy crowd at Newlands.

South Africa split their two official warm-up games, defeating Pakistan comfortably but losing to England, while Sri Lanka played two close ones, beating Ireland by two runs and losing to West Indies by four wickets with two balls remaining.

South Africa: 1 Laura Wolvaardt, 2 Tazmin Brits, 3 Marizanne Kapp, 4 Sune Luus (capt), 5 Chloe Tryon, 6 Anneke Bosch, 7 Nadine de Klerk, 8 Sinalo Jafta (wk), 9 Shabnim Ismail, 10 Ayabonga Kaka, 11 Nonkululeko Mlaba

Sri Lanka: 1 Harshitha Samarawickrama, 2 Chamari Athapaththu (capt), 3 Vishmi Gunaratne, 4 Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), 5 Nilakshi Silva, 6 Kaveesha Dilhari, 7 Oshadhi Ranasinghe, 8 Ama Kanchana, 9 Sugandika Kumari, 10 Inoka Ranaweera, 11 Anchini Kulasooriya

Valkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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