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Cape Town - The Proteas beat the West Indies by a comfortable 35 runs in the final women’s One-Day International at Buffalo Park Stadium in East London on Monday.
The consolation victory gave them two valuable points in the ICC Women’s Championship, moving them up to fourth place on the log, with the Windies sitting securely at number two.
South Africa posted an impressive 235/6 in their allotted overs after winning the toss and opting to bat in very windy conditions. The batters showed up like they haven’t done in the series so far, with Trisha Chetty (55 off 83) and Mignon du Preez (43) sharing a 72-run, second-wicket partnership after the loss of Andrie Steyn (21) in the ninth over.
Marizanne Kapp chipped in with 39 runs before Dané van Niekerk played a fantastic knock, hitting her 55 runs from just 48 balls to take her side to a solid total in the end.
The visitors, perhaps missing Stafanie Taylor who sat the game out because of injury, could not keep a steady partnership going after Shaquana Quintyne (40) and Kyshona Knight’s (18) 57-run stand for the second wicket. Merissa Aguilleira (40) and Shermaine Campbelle (27) shared a 52-run, sixth-wicket partnership but they were scoring at too slow a pace to catch up.
The South African bowlers took wickets at regular intervals to keep the visitors on the back foot. Suné Luus (2/30) and Masabata Klaas (2/33) did the most damage with the ball, but Ayabonga Khaka produced the most impressive spell of all, taking 1/28 in her allotted overs, including two maidens.
Captain, Mignon du Preez was relieved to win the match but still believes her side are capable of doing better.
“It was definitely a much better performance today,” she said. “We’re still not at 100%, maybe 80 or 90% there in terms of the way that we executed our skills. Something that we’ve been talking about is the fact that the top order needs to score more runs and I think everyone that went in (to bat), chipped in somehow and Trisha (Chetty) and Dané’s (van Niekerk) half-centuries really set up a nice total for our bowlers to defend.
“I think the bowlers have been absolutely brilliant,” she continued. “Ayabonga Khaka bowled the best I have ever seen her bowl and that was something special to see. All the bowlers chipped in in some way and that made me really happy. I hope we can take this momentum into the T20s.”
