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11:01 PM: That’s it. South Africa beat Sri Lanka comprehensively by 10 wickets in a rain-curtailed fixture. They make it four wins in a row in this edition of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup and move to the second spot in the points table. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, remain winless in this edition as they suffer their third loss.

Chasing a revised target of 121, skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits gave South Africa a solid start. Both played positively and pounced on anything loose. They didn’t allow the required run rate to creep up. The Lankan bowlers tried hard but failed to break the stand as it grew past 50.

Wolvaardt played some exquisite strokes and brought up her fifty off just 41 balls. The South African openers pressed on the accelerator as they inched closer to the target. Wolvaardt and Brits remained unbeaten on 60 and 55 respectively as they wrapped up the chase in just 14.5 overs to hand a heavy defeat to the Lankan side.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka opted to bat first in overcast conditions. Vishmi Gunaratne started positively at the top of the order and scored 12 before copping a blow on her left knee while completing the run. She was stretchered off the field, retired hurt in the fifth over.

Masabata Klaas bowled beautifully with the new ball and dismissed Chamari Athapaththu (11) and Hasini Perera (4) cheaply. Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari led the recovery work for the hosts. Sri Lanka were placed at 46/2 after 12 overs before rain arrived and halted the action. After more than five hours, the match restarted, which was reduced to 20 overs per side.

Dilhari (14) and Harshitha (13) started aggressively post the rain break before being sent back on consecutive balls. Vishmi Gunaratne (34) returned and joined Nilakshi de Silva (18) and both contributed with the bat as Sri Lanka finished their innings on 105/7.

Nonkululeko Mlaba bowled beautifully with the wet ball and registered figures of 3/30. Masabata Klaas (2/18) and Nadine de Klerk (1/23) were the other wicket-takers for the South African side. Wolvaardt and Brits made a small work of the chase as the Proteas got across the line in the 15th over with 10 wickets in hand.

Stick around for the post-match presentation.

South Africa's 10-wicket wins in Women's ODI World Cups:

51/0 vs West Indies, Leicester, 2017 (Target: 49)

125/0 vs Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2025, (DLS Target: 121), Tonight*

Laura Wolvaardt (Player of the Match): "Yeah, very relieved that we got a game at the end. It was a frustrating day sitting on the sidelines for 4 or 5 hours. But it was lovely to get the two points.

We just said that it's a normal T20 game. We wanted to get ahead of that rate as soon as we could. We didn't want to leave it till the end. We wanted to win it convincingly this time. We just wanted to go out there and play with the same intent. We are glad that we batted through. 

When we were bowling at the end, the ball felt like a soap but it did come onto the bat nicely when we walked out to bat. 

(On her captaincy experience today) It was pretty tricky especially with the rain delay. I haven't experienced much of that in my captaincy career but it worked out quite nicely for us. Our main bowlers had bowled out early on so we had to bowl our spinners at the end. I thought Nonkululeko & Chloe were brilliant with that wet ball. 

In a World Cup it's always difficult as a captain. You need a lot of preparation for that. Happy with the way things have gone so far in the tournament."

Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka Women Captain): "Yeah, exactly. But we can't control those things. Results haven't gone our way in this World Cup. We have two more games left. We will look to focus on those two games and finishing on a high.

Because we talked about those things. We decided to bat first because we had a good last game against New Zealand. Unfortunately, it was rain-affected and the result didn't go our way.

It's hard to grip the ball, especially the spinners. Inoka struggled to grip the ball. We can't control those things and we have to stick with our plans in the next game.

As a team, we have to play positive cricket. That's the most important thing in the middle. Play positive and fearless cricket and back ourselves."

Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa Women Captain): "Very pleased to get a game in the end. It was a frustrating day as we were sitting on the sidelines for 4-5 hours. It stopped raining 10 minutes before we had a cut off time. Glad that things worked out for us and we were able to get back on the field.

Yeah, that was something we have been speaking a lot as a group. So far in the tournament we haven't made a good start as an opening pair. It was really nice to put on a 100-run stand and spend sometime in the middle. 

I think we are still searching for that perfect game. I think sometimes the middle order batters are firing, sometimes the top order is firing. We just need a game where everything comes together. As a bowling unit, we need to get better in that death phase. We did well today and that's something we need to continue doing. 

It's tough to stay switched on. I think you all could see that after we came back onto the field after that 4-hour break, we had a nervy start. We weren't as switched on as we should've been. We regrouped and then came back strongly."

That brings an end to our coverage of this game. Tomorrow, New Zealand Women will take on Pakistan Women at the same venue. Let’s hope the weather stays clear and we get a full game. Do join us for that. For now, this is Akshay Bhide, signing off, on behalf of my co-commentator Pritam Dey, scorer Zeeshan Naiyer and statistician Aman. Bye bye.