A blazing fifty from Nilakshi de Silva has guided Sri Lanka to post 258 runs against New Zealand in the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 on October 14 at Colombo.

She went on to slam fifty on 26 deliveries and finished for 55 off 28 deliveries, which included 7 fours and 1 six.

Batting first, Vishmi Gunaratne and Chamari Athapaththu opened the innings for Sri Lanka, while Bree Illing opened the bowling attack

Despite scoring runs at low run rate, Sri Lankan batters started solid scoring 101 runs for the first wicket.

Athapaththu scored 53 runs before being dismissed by Devine. With Vishmi got dismissed for 42 runs by Rosemary Mair, Harshitha Samarawickrama scored 26 runs before being dismissed by Bree Illing.

With Kavisha Dilhari’s cheap dismissal for 4 runs, Sri Lanka lost 4 wickets for scoring 188 runs. Bree Illing got her second wicket dismissing Hasini Perera for 44 runs.

Piumi Wathsala’s 7 runs did not put much difference in the game. However Nilakshi de Silva did play a cameo scoring 55* runs off 28 deliveries and helped Sri Lanka to post 258 runs in their 50 over innings.

Sophie Devine picked three wickets while Bree Illing bagged two wickets and Mair completed with a wicket.

Speaking on the toss, Chamari Athapaththu said, “We decided to bat first. Last two games we struggled to chase and conditions are good for batting. We have two changes. We have to play positive cricket in the middle and as a batting unit we have struggled to do that.”

“I told them we’re playing good cricket in the last 12 months against the best teams, but this is the biggest stage, so we don’t want to put too much pressure on our shoulders.”

“Just play your natural game, that’s the important thing, because there are a lot of youngsters in my batting unit, I don’t want to put too much pressure on their shoulders,” said Chamari Athapaththu.

Meanwhile, Sophie Devine said, “We don’t mind bowling first. The bowling attack was fantastic against Bangladesh. It’s going to be similar here, in slightly different conditions potentially, but we’re really pleased that we finally got a win on the board, we know today is a new challenge.”

“Just one change – Illing comes in for Tahuhu. Just think the match-up with Illing against Chamari is obviously a key one, some of the stats suggest that she goes okay, so we’re really excited to be able to bring in Bree again,” concluded Devine.

Sri Lanka Women Playing 11: Hasini Perera, Chamari Athapaththu (C), Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi De Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (WK) Kumari, Malki Madara, Inoka Ranaweeera

New Zealand women Playing 11: Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine (c), Brooke Halliday, Maddy Green, Isabella Gaze (wk), Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Bree Illing, Eden Carson