Women bag full house in Centurion
The Proteas women’s team made light work of their Sri Lanka counterparts with a 39run victory to complete a commendable 3-0 T20 series whitewash at SuperSport Park in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The South Africans came into the match with the series already in the bag following wins in Cape Town and Johannesburg and they had little trouble in finishing off the job against this modest Sri Lankan side.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl first, but the move backfired as the Proteas posted a highly competitive total of 163/5 with captain Dane van Niekerk‚ Tazmin Brits and Lara Goodall scoring 38‚ 36 and 35 respectively.
With ball in hand‚ Nadine de Klerk claimed three wickets and Shabnim Ismail got two while Marizanne Kapp‚ Sune Luus and Masabata Klaas returned with one each as they restricted Sri Lanka to 124 after 20 overs.
The first wicket to fall was Brits’s when she was caught by Shashikala Siriwardene from Inoka Ranaweera on 36 and in the 10th they had a minor setback when Van Niekerk retired with a stomach bug on 35.
Van Niekerk‚ who was named player of the series‚ was able to finish her innings before she was dismissed having added only three runs to end her score at 38.
A few overs after
Van Niekerk was forced to leave the field‚
South
Africa lost Marizanne Kapp (19).
Goodall‚ who came on after Van Niekerk was forced off the field‚ departed having scored a solid knock of 35 off 30 when she tried to punish a delivery by Kavisha Dilhari, only to be caught at long on by Chamari Attapatu.
South Africa’s middle order suffered a collapse in the final over as they lost the wickets of Luus and Van Niekerk in successive balls as they settled for a competitive score of 163.
South Africa’s defence of their total got off to a good start when Kapp bowled out Prasdani Weerakkody (0) with the second ball and Hasini Perera (13) soon followed when she was outdone by Nadine de Klerk to leave the Sri Lankans needing to score 128 runs from 74 balls.
Then Chamari Attapatu (43)‚ Harshitha Madhavi (11)‚ Imalka Mendis (6)‚ Nilakshi de Silva (0)‚ Siriwardena (29) and Kaveesha Dilhari (9) followed as South Africa registered this morale-boosting victory.
The focus shifts to the three-match ODI series to be played at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom between February 11 and 17.