South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first in front of a packed Newlands crowd that cheered the home side on as they entered the field.

Put in to bat first Sri Lanka posted 129/4 in their 20 overs to set the home side a target of 130 for victory, Sri Lanka's captain Chamari Athapaththu was the difference between the two sides as she scored 68 runs in 50 balls to help her side set a competitive score in the first innings of the match.

Athapaththu together with her partner Vishmi Gunaratne put on a second wicket partnership of 86 runs after Sri Lanka had lost the early wicket of Harshitha Madavi through the bowling of Nadine de Klerk. 

Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail then took two wickets each very late in the innings to restrict the middle order of the Sri Lankan side to not cause any damage to the wounded South African bowlers.

Chasing 130 for victory, the Momentum Proteas started their chase on a positive note through a 29-run opening partnership of Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt.

Oshadi Ranasinghe was then brought on to try and stop the Brits and Wolvaardt show, the right-arm-medium fast bowler surely obliged and claimed the wicket of Brits on 12 runs.

Wolvaardt was taken out by Inoka Ranaweera having scored 18 runs, Sune Luus then came on trying to revive the batting innings and continue with the fight, Luus scored 28 runs in the process however, once she fell to Ranaweera then the South African team started to sink.

With Sugandika Kumari and Ranasinghe also getting in on the act, the Proteas middle order tumbled at regular intervals not being able to adjust to the pressure from the Sri Lankan bowlers.

Sinalo Jafta and Shabnim Ismail were the only pair that the South African team looked to in their quest of trying to salvage a victory as the match went down to the wire but it wasn't to be as the pair was run out and the home side fell short of 3 runs.

On Saturday afternoon West Indies will welcome England at Boland Park in the second match of the World Cup while later on Australia will lock horns with New Zealand in the last fixture of the day in Paarl.