The Women’s T20 World Cup opened with host South Africa losing to Sri Lanka by 3 runs at Newlands on Friday, 10 February.

The Proteas won the toss and chose to bowl first under the lights in front of an admirable Cape Town crowd.

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SRI LANKA BAT FIRST

Having been asked to bat first Sri Lanka made it deep into their innings with wickets in hand. They lost an additional three wickets in the last three overs making it to 129/4 in their 20 overs.

Sri Lanka’s captain, Chamari Athapaththu put her team in a solid position scoring 68 off 50 deliveries. Her partner through most of the innings, Gunarathne also scored an impressive 35 of 34 before getting runout by some impressive fielding.

Kapp was the pick of the bowlers with 1/15. Wickets also came for Ismail 1/22 and an expensive de Klerk 1/38.

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SOUTH AFRICA TAKE THINGS TO THE FINAL TWO BALLS

The Proteas took to the field chasing 130 to win at 6.50 an over. Despite losing wickets regularly they managed to keep things interesting in the T20 World Cup opener up until the last couple of deliveries.

Captain Luus top scored with 28, opener Wolvaardt made 18, and the rest of the team contributed where they could to help the team get to 126/9. Three runs shy of victory.

Ranaweera took an impressive 3/18 while Ranasinghe got 2/20 and Kumari completed the list of wicket takers with 2/28.

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The great showing of spectators at the field added a festive atmosphere and no doubt added to the pressure to perform. They may also have had an impact on the game. There were many near and actual runouts with miscommunications a plenty from both sides. Could this be the effect of having crowds actually vocally supporting the womens game?

The World Cup continues on 11, February. South Africa next take on New Zealand at 19:00 on Monday, 13 February.