Laura Wolvaardt’s unbeaten 60 powers South Africa to a 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a rain-hit Women’s World Cup match.

South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt said that once their Women’s World Cup contest against Sri Lanka was reduced to 20 overs a side, she treated it like a T20 game and came out to bat with the same mindset here on Friday.

South Africa chased down the revised target of 121 against the hosts in double-quick time, finishing the match in 14.5 overs and with all 10 wickets intact.

Wolvaardt, who was declared player of the match for her unbeaten 60 and 125-run opening stand with Tazmin Brits (55 not out), said after the match that getting two points was a huge comfort after sitting inside the dressing room and watching the ground being pelted by incessant rain.

“Very relieved we got a game in the end. It was frustrating sitting out for four or five hours but happy with the two points. We just treated it as a normal T20 game and wanted to get ahead of the game as soon as we could and not leave it late.

“Went at it (revised target) with the same intensity as a T20 game,” she added.

The Proteas have moved to eight points from five games and are second behind seven-time champions Australia, who have already secured a semifinal spot.

Wolvaardt said the pitch was very slow and the ball felt like “a bar of soap” when South Africa bowled in the rain-affected game.

“That ball was a bar of soap when we were bowling but it came on nicely, so it was good when we were batting.“

The skipper said she focused on her batting, knowing that small targets can be dodgy.

“When I’m out there, I’m just watching the ball and trying to hit it as well as I can.“

Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu, whose bowlers were thrashed all around the ground, said the focus will be on the remaining two games though they are virtually out of the competition.

“We can’t control those things (weather) and results haven’t gone our way. We have two more games and we want to play well and win those and finish as high as possible.”

On the soggy conditions, she said, “The ball was too hard to grip, especially for the spinners. And we are dependent on spin so we struggled. These kind of things happened in the middle unfortunately.

“As a team we’ll stick with our plans in the next game. As a team we have to play positive and fearless cricket. And we need to take the smart options as a batting unit,” added Athapaththu.