The Proteas Women’s team’s tour of India got off to a breathtaking start on Sunday with Sune Luus’s side completing a crushing eight-wicket win in the first ODI in Lucknow.
India: 177/9 (Mithali Raj 50, Harmanpreet Kaur 40, Ismail 3/28, Mlaba 2/41)
South Africa: 178/2 (Wolvaardt 80, Lee 83*, Guswami 2/38)
Result: South Africa won by 8 wickets
CAPE TOWN – The Proteas Women’s team’s tour of India got off to a breathtaking start on Sunday with Sune Luus’s side completing a crushing eight-wicket win in the first ODI in Lucknow.
Laura Wolvaardt and Lizille Lee’s record opening partnership of 169 ensured the visitors’ chased down the paltry target of 178 with 59 balls to spare.
Wolvaardt engineered a smart 80 off 110 balls with 12 boundaries before she was harshly adjuded LBW off Jhulan Goswami (2/38), while Lee stroked a powerful 83 off 102 balls (11×4, 1×6).
In the process, Wolvaardt became the youngest South African Women’s batter to pass 2,000 ODI runs.
Luus’ decision to bowl first after winning the toss worked out splendidly as all her bowlers put in solid shifts to restrict the hosts to just 177/9 in their allotted overs.
Pace bowler Shabnim Ismail once again led the attack with aplomb, claiming 3/28. Ismail was well supported by left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba, who finished with figures of 2/41.
Overall, though, it was an excellent display from the entire bowling unit with Marizanne Kapp (1/25), Ayabonga Khaka (1/29) and Luus (1/23) all contributing.
They were well supported by the fielders with South Africa producing arguably one of the most athletic displays in a very long time.
The energy displayed suffocated the Indian team, who were earlier well-placed on 102/3 after 25.1 overs. They could only add a further 75 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their remaining 24.5 overs as the Proteas put the squeeze on.
Only Indian captain Mithali Raj (50) and Harmanpreet Kaur (40) put the South African bowlers under any form of pressure.
India were playing their first competitive match together since the World T20 final in Australia last year, while the Proteas’ have played both an ODI and T20I series against Pakistan prior to this tour.
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