South Africa 98 for 0 (Britt 50*, Wolvaardt 42*) beat West Indies 97/6 (Mathews 34, Gajanabi 33, Sekhukhune 2-24) by ten wickets
It has gone from bad to worse for the West Indies in the Women’s T20I tri-series in East London. After suffering back-to-back defeats in the first two matches, another meek batting performance restricted him to 97.
Wolvaardt, Brits make chasing easy
Wolvaardt flicked the first ball of the 98-run chase over wide mid-on for four. The Brits, brought on for Anneke Bosch, also showed intent by using her feet to put away the bowlers. She pulled a full toss through square leg before dancing and hitting off-spinner Karishma Ramharek at mid-off.
In the interim, Wolvaardt played his trademark cover drive off Shamilia Connell and beat the sweeper before cutting the next delivery beyond backward point. The pair then hit three fours in the opening over off leg-spinner Effie Fletcher to bring up their fifty-run partnership.
While Wolvaardt stuck to conventional strokes, which are his strengths, the Brits were daring and used reverse sweeps and heaves after charging down the track to attack the bowlers. He also hit the only six of the match.
Same old story for West Indies
Captain Hayley Mathews won the toss and decided to bat first. In the triangular series till then no side had lost a match after batting first. But the lack of intent from the top order was quite surprising. Left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba got wicketkeeper-batsman Rashada Williams guessing before miscuing one at mid-off.
The other opener, Brittany Cooper, was more than happy to play the waiting game and saw off seven straight dot balls against Marijan Kapp before getting off the mark. Soon, Shemaine Campbelle, who had scored 47 against India, was run out and West Indies were 6 for 2 in the powerplay.
In all, the top four batsmen – including Cooper’s 10 off 26 balls – scored 17 off 55 balls and the team were 29 for 3 at 10 overs.
But it was equal overall. Mlaba took 1/7 from his four overs, while Tumi Sekhukhune, who came in for Ayabonga Khaka, took 2/24. He gave away 21 runs in his two overs.
