Cheered on by a sold-out crowd at the Cape Town Convention Centre, South Africa continued their good start to the Netball World Cup with a clinical 87-32 demolition of Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon.

It was a strong opening quarter from the home side who opened up a commanding 15-point lead early on – Elmeré van der Berg and Nichole Taljaard combining well to set the tone.

After that the Proteas never relented, and their early lead simply grew, along with the volume from the fervid home supporters. By half-time, the score was 45-18.

With a comfortable lead at the half, coach Norma Plummer made a raft of changes – as she did on Friday night against Wales. On came Chanyisa Chawane for Irvette Grisel at centre, while captain Bongi Msomi was also taken off. Veteran Karla Pretorius came on to a big round of applause to win her 100th Proteas cap when she replaced Shadine van der Merwe.

The Proteas’ next game is against Jamaica at 6pm on Sunday, in what will be their final fixture of the preliminary round of the competition.