• Source:JND
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Women's World Cup 2025: Sri Lanka's bid for a crucial victory in the Women's World Cup was thwarted by persistent rain at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday, as their match against New Zealand was abandoned.

The game was abandoned without a ball bowled in the second innings, forcing both teams to share a point each.

This marks the second abandoned match of the ICC marquee event in Colombo, with Sri Lanka involved on both occasions.

As the players geared up for the chase, threatening dark clouds gathered over the venue, releasing a deluge of rain moments before New Zealand was set to take to the field. A torrential rainfall brought play to a standstill for over two hours, with the ground staff working tirelessly to prepare the field.

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Opting to bat, Nilakshika De Silva's aggressive fifty was the excellent contradiction to skipper Chamari Athapaththu's classy half-century as Sri Lanka posted a challenging 258/6.

Together with the young Vishmi Gunaratne (42), Athapaththu laid a solid footing with a 101-run opening partnership, while Hasini Perera also chipped in with a useful 44.

The pair made full use of the fielding conditions in the power play, collecting 52 without loss in the first 10 overs.

New Zealand clawed their way back into the match after the power play, pulling their lines and pouncing up the boundaries. With a boundary and chipped into the gap at mid-wicket for two, Athapaththu brought up her 20th ODI fifty.

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With the run-rate dwindling, Gunaratne, who struck three boundaries during her 83-ball stay, tried to break the shackles but was cleaned up by Rosemary Mair.

Perera (44) and Harshitha Samarawickrama (26) steadied the innings with a 58-run partnership. New Zealand scintillated a mini-collapse, removing Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari (4), and Perera in quick sequence, hindering the momentum once again before Nilakshika's cameo, which contained three boundaries in the final over bowled by Devine.