Dane van Niekerk struck an unbeaten 70 to guide South Africa to a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka and a 2-1 women’s T20 international series victory.
Winning the toss and batting Sri Lanka Women got off to a bad start as they lost Yasoda Mendis in the second over for just 1 run. The second wicket partnership between Captain Chamari Atapattu and Shashikala Siriwardene helped Sri Lanka get back on course. Further partnerships from the middle order batswomen for Sri Lanka helped them get to a respectable total.
Sri Lanka had posted 132 for 6 after choosing to bat, Prasadani Weerakkody top-scoring with 48 off 45. Chamari Atapattu provided the initial burst with 24 off 16, while Eshani Kaushalya contributed 29 off 20. Shabnim Ismail and Marcia Letsoalo picked up 2 wickets each for South Africa.
Set a target of 133, Dane Van Niekerk and Trisha Chetty put on 94 for the opening wicket in 15.3 overs. Trisha Chetty was the first to be dismissed as she fell for a run-a-ball 39, South Africa needed 39 off 27.
Shashikala Siriwardene gave away just six runs off the 17th over to make it an even more steeper target (31 required off 18). Dane Van Niekerk stepped up with successive fours off Ama Kanchana in the 18th and Lee took two more off Udeshika Prabodhani in the 19th.
Lee finished the game with successive twos off Ama Kanchana in the last over followed by a four off the penultimate ball of the match and with that the win in the 3rd T20 and the series win.
Dane Van Niekerk was at the other end on 70 off 68, with 7 fours and 2 sixes, following up on her match-winning all-round show in the second T20.
Brief Scores:
South Africa Women 136 for 1 (van Niekerk 70*, Chetty 39) beat Sri Lanka Women 132 for 6 (Prasadani Weerakkody 48, Letsoalo 2-15, Ismail 2-19) by 9 wickets.
