ICC Women’s World T20 2018: England and South Africa register comfortable wins 

On the fourth day of the ICC Women’s World T20, England and South Africa registered easy wins over their opponents in their Group A matches at St Lucia. England’s first match was washed out while South Africa made an impact by winning their first match of the tournament.

England women defeated Bangladesh by 7 wickets in a rain-curtailed match. Heather Knight won the toss and elected to field first.

It was a great bowling effort by the England bowlers who just kept the pressure on the Bangladeshi batsmen, picking up wickets at regular intervals and making life tough. In the first six overs, Bangladesh just scored 12. At the end of 20 overs, they scored 76 for 9. Ayasha Rahman was the top scorer for Bangladesh with 39 runs. For England, KL Gordon picked 3 wickets for 16 runs in 4 overs while three other bowlers took one wicket each.

Chasing a revised target of 64 runs to win in 16 overs, England lost 2 early wickets after scoring 13 runs. AE Jones and Natalie Sciver added 38 runs for the 3rd wicket, which got them back into the game. In the end, it was an easy chase for England as they reached the target in just 9.3 overs. For Bangladesh, Salma Khatun took 2 for 17 in 3 overs.

England 64 for 3 in 9.3 overs- 16 overs ( AE Jones 28*, Sciver 23, Salma Khatun 2/17) beat Bangladesh 76 for 9 in 20 overs ( Ayasha Rahman 39, KL Gordon 3/16)

South Africa starts the tournament with a bang.

In the second match of the day, the South Africa women cruised to a 7 wicket win over Sri Lanka at St Lucia. South African captain Dane van Niekerk won the toss and elected to field first. It was a great bowling performance by the South African bowlers as they made life tough for Sri Lanka. In the first six overs, Sri Lanka just scored 16 for the loss of 2 wickets.

For Sri Lanka, Siriwardene was the top scorer with 21 and Surganika remained not out on 20. South Africa restricted Sri Lanka to just 99 for 8 in 20 overs.

For South Africa, Ismail took 3 for 10, while Kapp, Klaas, Daniels, Van Niekerk, and Sekhukhune took 1 wicket each.

Chasing the target of 100 runs to win, South Africa lost 2 early wickets for 6 runs. However, Kapp and Niekerk steadied the ship with a 67 run stand for the 3rd wicket. In the end, they won the match by 7 wickets with 9 balls to spare.

South Africa 102 for 3 in 18.3 overs ( M Kapp 38, Dan Van Niekerk 33*, Siriwardene 1/12) beat Sri Lanka 99 for 8 in 20 overs ( Siriwardene 21, Surganika 20*, Ismail 3/10) by 7 wickets.

On the fifth day, Pakistan will face Ireland and Australia will take on New Zealand in Group B matches at Providence Stadium, Guyana.