Women's World Cup 2025, Match 15 Review: Colombo rain washes out Sri Lanka-New Zealand tie
Both teams shared a point each.
3 Min Read
Persistent rain in Colombo forced the 15th match of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 between Sri Lanka and New Zealand to be abandoned without a result. This was the second washout of the tournament, both at the R. Premadasa Stadium, leading to both teams sharing points. Sri Lanka holds the seventh position lead, while New Zealand sits at five, with both teams still in contention.
Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka Women produced their best batting performance of the tournament so far, posting 258/6 in 50 overs, their second-highest total in World Cup history. Openers Chamari Athapaththu (53 off 72) and Vishmi Gunaratne (42 off 83) stitched a solid 101-run opening stand. Hasini Perera (44) and Harshitha Samarawickrama (26) then took over the middle overs before Nilakshi de Silva played a quickfire knock of 55 off just 28 balls, the fastest fifty of the tournament and the quickest by a Sri Lankan woman in ODIs, surpassing her own record.
De Silva’s late cameo powered Sri Lanka to 80 runs in the final 10 overs. New Zealand’s fielding lapses, including missed catches, dropped stumpings, and several misfields, allowed the hosts to capitalize. Captain Sophie Devine (3/54) was the pick of the bowlers, while Bree Illing and Rosemary Mair chipped in with one wicket each.
However, the rain soon took over after the innings break, halting any chances of a chase. The first spell of rain arrived just as the umpires were preparing for inspection. Despite the ground being fully covered and the tireless efforts of the groundsmen, persistent rain in two separate spells made play impossible. Umpires and officials eventually had no choice but to call off the match, with both skippers, Chamari Athapaththu and Sophie Devine, sharing a handshake.
Meanwhile, New Zealand, now on three points, faces a tough campaign ahead with fixtures against Pakistan, India, and England. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, has matches against South Africa, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to climb higher up the table.
'We assess the conditions and played good cricket. Unfortunately, we can't complete the game. Not in our hands. She has struggled as an opener so she moved down to number 4. I talked to her. And she is back at the top (talking about Vishmi). Nilakshi is an experienced player. Last 12 months, she has been playing good cricket. We missed another 20-25 runs. I had talked to the bowlers to atack the stumps. These are the things we talked before the rain. Next game is important as we only have 3 games. Hopefully, we will play the next game without the rain," Chamari Athapaththu said.
"Sri Lanka batted well. There is a theme that if you have wickets in the back end you can exploit that. They probably got a few more runs that we would have liked. Shame the weather kept us off, we were excited for the chase. Stats and numbers can only go that far. Sometimes it is about gut. Really about manipulating match-ups. Another experience and opportunity for our bowlers to go out there against Sri Lanka. It is about re-adjusting and moving on. I only bowled one over the other day. I have got myself to blame. I see where I fit among the rest of the group. We have got so much variety. Idea was to bowl stump to stump and try to contain them. Squeezing a bit of dots was vital. We will review half the game we played and come up with plans," Sophie Devine said.
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