Rain forces abandonment after Nilakshi's heroics

Torrential rain in Colombo forced Sri Lanka and New Zealand to split points in their Women's World Cup encounter. The result is a significant blow for New Zealand in the race to the semifinal spot given they have already lost two games in the tournament. Sri Lanka would have fancied their own chances of picking up their first win of the campaign having posted the highest total of the tournament in Colombo so far.

The home side kicked things off in positive fashion after opting to bat. It was the Chamari Athapaththu show in the opening ten overs as she raced to a run-a-ball 33 in Sri Lanka's 52/0. Vismi Gunaratne on the other hand made a sedate start and was batting on 10 off 27 at that stage. New Zealand then pulled back the scoring rate significantly over the next ten overs before the Sri Lankan skipper brought up her 20th half-century in ODI cricket.

Sophie Devine then finally broke the century stand with Athapaththu's wicket and Rosemary Mair ended Gunaratne's scratchy 83-ball 42 to help New Zealand claw back into the game. However, Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama ensured their side didn't cave in by adding 58 for the third wicket. Both batters couldn't capitalise on their starts though as they failed to kick on and bat deep into the innings.

New Zealand fought back strongly to reduce the hosts to 198/5 from 183/2 as the innings was now in real danger of getting derailed right at the end. However, Nilakshi de Silva walked out to bat in the 42nd over to change the complexion of the game completely. Slamming her second ball for a boundary, de Silva took charge of the final five overs, finding the boundary at regular intervals to hammer an unbeaten 55 off just 28 balls to power Sri Lanka past the 250-run mark.

Given the history so far in this tournament at this venue, the home side would have fancied their chances to pick up their maiden win given they were impressive in patches against India and England before. But the run chase never got underway with rain consistently keeping the players indoors, forcing an abandonment for the second time this edition.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 258/6 in 50 overs (Nilakshi de Silva 55*, Chamari Athapaththu 53, Hasini Perera 44; Sophie Devine 3/54) vs New Zealand - No result