Van Niekerk stars for Proteas in narrow win over Sri Lanka

SOUTH AFRICA captain Dane van Niekerk put in an outstanding allround performance to help her team secure a narrow seven-run win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international in Potchefstroom yesterday.

Rain delayed the start of the contest and reduced the game to a 48-overa-side affair. Sri Lanka won the toss and inserted the Proteas to bat and got off to the perfect start as Laura Wolvaardt was dismissed for a golden duck in the second over.

Udeshika Prabodhani struck again, bowling Lara Goodhall for 12. Van Niekerk and Andrie Steyn over the course of nearly 25 overs put on a superb 116-run partnership to put SA into a strong position. Steyn fell for 75, lbw to Inoka Ranaweera while Van Niekerk pushed on to reach her maiden ODI century.

In the end SA ended their innings on 225/7 from 48 overs.

Sri Lanka lost their first wicket, that of Anushka Sanjeewani, in the 11th over with the score on 57. Then, in a crucial passage of play, Van Niekerk dried up the runs before bowling her opposite number. She finished with figures of 2/26 from her 10 overs.

From then on, despite a 47 from Prasadani Weerakkody and 49 from Shashikala Siriwardene, wickets fell at regular intervals. The run-outs of Oshadi Ranasinghe and Prabodhani in the 44th over didn’t help Sri Lanka’s cause as they eventually ended up seven runs short of the target. |