A match which saw just 190 balls being bowled, South Africa women team thrashed West Indian women by 10 wickets. Captain Dane van Niekerk won the toss and invited the Windies to bat first. What followed was a complete capitulation of the WI batting line-up as two of the Proteas bowlers shared four wickets each.
Five wickets in the first 10 overs and another five between 20th and 26th - West Indies lost all their wickets after adding just 48 runs on the board. South African openers, Laura Wolvaardt and Lizelle Lee, then made no fuss of the minuscule target, chasing it down in a little more than six overs.
Given the way in the which the T20 champions surrendered, the match had no dearth of talking points and here are five of the most important.
#1 Shabnim Ismail strikes big up top
One of the best fast bowlers’ around in the Women’s circuit, Ismail started up-front along with Kapp for the South Africans. Both the bowlers used the experience they have to perfect use and accounted for the top five WI wickets inside the first 10 overs.
Ismail was the first to open her account as he trapped Hayle Matthews leg before in the third over. She doubled it up by uprooting Stafanie Taylor’s off-stump in her next over, the best player of the lot. With two of the biggest names already back in the pavilion, Windies middle order failed to sustain the pressure and gave up.
Ismail’s dual strike gave her partner Kapp a perfect base to launch an onslaught from, and she did exactly that.
#2 Marizanne Kapp bags three wickets in an over
After her compatriot had given the team a head start, Kapp came into her own and in space of five deliveries, picked three of WI wickets.
The first of her victims was Reniece Boyce, from whom she forced a leading edge and pouched the catch easily. The second one to fall was Kyshona Knight, who failed to pick up an in-swinger from the speedster and found the ball striking her on the pad in front of the stump, on the very next delivery.
Deandra Dottin, another big fish, managed to deny Kapp a hat-trick but after a couple of balls, fell to a peach of a yorker. These three wickets all but ensured the fear that the Windies would find it difficult to reach the three-figure mark.
The bowler then came back later in the innings to pick another wicket and finish with figures of 7-2-14-4.
#3 Dane van Niekerk late onslaught
Skipper Van Niekerk gave the performance of a lifetime and made sure West Indies were not able to capitalise on some of the stability provided by Chedean Nation and Merissa Aguilleira’s brief stay together on the crease.
She picked her first and West Indies’ sixth wicket in the 20th over and 32 balls later picked her fourth and WI’s 10th. One thing which stood out was in her spell of 3.2 overs, the Proteas skipper did not give even a single run.
When your figures at the end of opponents’ innings read 3.2-3-0-4, you know you haven’t put a foot wrong.
Stats: Most wickets without conceding a run in international cricket
#4 South African openers make no fuss of the target
Laura Wolvaardt and Lizelle Lee came out to bat in a little more than 10 minutes after the last WI wicket fell. After a quiet first over, they ran into the Windies bowling, hitting nine boundaries among them.
Lee was dropped twice in the third over and duly punished WI bowlers for that. She scored two boundaries each in the next over and didn’t break a sweat en route to the target. Wolvaardt, though, scored the winning runs as she slapped Dottin’s full-length delivery through the covers.
With this win, the SA women lead the points table with two wins and a no-result.
#5 West Indies one step away from being eliminated
West Indies women's ODI team’s story is, in some ways, similar to their men’s team's. Both of them won the World T20 last year in India, sending the cricket world into a frenzy. However, when it comes to the ODI World Cup, both seem to be on the shorter side.
WI women have lost their first three matches now and another loss could see their hopes of qualifying for the semifinals die. They currently sit at the bottom of the points table.
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