Siriwardene Seals Sri Lanka's Personal Best

Siriwardene Seals Sri Lanka's Personal Best

Sri Lanka finished the World Cup in fifth place - their best ever performance

©ICC/Solaris Images

Sri Lanka Women 244-7 (Atapattu 52) beat
South Africa Women 156 by 88 runs
Women's World Cup play-off, Cuttack
Scorecard

Sri Lanka Women ended their World Cup campaign on a high note, finishing in fifth place following a comprehensive 88-run win over South Africa in their positional play-off in Cuttack.

Sri Lanka equalled their fourth highest ODI score to make 244 for seven before dismissing South Africa for 156 as Shashikala Siriwardene returned figures of four for 31.

The win handed Sri Lanka their best finishing position at a World Cup after they won three matches, beating England and India in the initial group stage.

Here, Chamara Atapattu dropped down to number three in the order to good effect, top scoring with 52 after Sri Lanka had lost openers Yasoda Mendis (1) and Prasadani Weerakkody (8) cheaply to Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon respectively.

Deepika Rasangika (43), Siriwardene (44) and Eshani Kaushalya (43) put the staggering collapse that saw them lose seven wickets for seven runs against the same opponents two days ago behind them, powering the tournament's biggest surprise outfit to their highest score against South Africa.

A brace of wickets for Tryon and Marcia Letsoalo were backed up by one apiece for Ismail, Sunette Loubser and Dane van Niekerk.

South Africa have only sparkled briefly in this tournament, pushing Australia hard and pulling off expected victories against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but they finished with a whimper, bowled out in 40.1 overs.

They were soon in trouble at 49 for four and as India found to their cost much earlier, once Sri Lanka get early wickets, they are becoming adept at closing out the game.

The early blows were landed by Kaushalya (1-28), Sripali Weerakkody (2-15) and Chamani Seneviratne (2-35) before South Africa fought back.

Shandre Fritz made 54, van Niekerk 25 and Ismail 19 but Siriwardene saw the latter of those two off and Fritz was run out by Kaushalya to effectively end South Africa's rapidly diminishing chances.

Seneviratne had Tryon caught by Rasangika for nine and Siriwardene put the finishing touches on Sri Lanka's breakthrough World Cup performance by dismissing Sune Luus (1) and finally Loubser, caught and bowled, for two.

© Cricket World 2013