Women's World Cup: Unchanged Sri Lanka opt to bat against South Africa

Colombo, Oct 17 (IANS) Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in the 18th match of the ICC Women's World Cup at the R. Premadasa Stadium here on Friday.

South Africa made three changes to their lineup for the clash, bringing in Sune Luus, Karabo Meso, and Nondumiso Shangase in place of Anneke Bosch, Sinalo Jafta and Tumi Sekhukhune.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have opted to go in with an unchanged XI, keeping faith in the same combination that featured in their previous outing against New Zealand.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said, "We have decided to bat first. We batted really well against New Zealand in our last game so we have decided to stick to the same process.

“We can't control those things. We stick with our plans. We are training really hard in the nets and hopefully we can execute our plans today. Whoever will play the best cricket on that particular day will come out on top. We have the confidence as we have played good cricket against South Africa in South Africa and Sri Lanka. Hopefully, we give our best today as well. We are going with the same XI.”

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said, "Don't mind that too much. We have had success chasing. With rain around, we don't mind batting second. It's important for us to get used to the conditions. It's looking different at this time of the year. Nice wicket to bat on. We have to assess early on with the ball.

“It hasn't been our best tournament top-order wise. But we are looking at how to improve going ahead in the tournament. We have got 3 changes. Sune Luus, Shangase and Meso are in. We have just got two off-spinners coming in with a lot of left-handed batters in the Sri Lankan side.”

Playing XIs:

South Africa Women: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Sune Luus, Annerie Dercksen, Marizanne Kapp, Karabo Meso (wk), Chloe Lesleigh Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Nondumiso Shangase, Masabata Klaas, Nonkululeko Mlaba.

Sri Lanka Women: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Piumi Badalge, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Sugandika Kumari, Malki Madara, Inoka Ranaweera.

--IANS

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