Nonkululeko Mlaba claimed a career-best 4 for 29 before Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits scored unbeaten half-centuries as South Africa brushed aside West Indies in a statement-making 10-wicket victory at the Dubai International Stadium. South Africa reeled off an effortless opening win against West Indies, as the left-arm spin of Nonkululeko Mlaba devastated West Indies’ top order, before Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits produced fuss-free unbeaten fifties.
The openers walked South Africa home with 13 balls to spare, in the Dubai curtain-raiser for this women’s T20 World Cup. Having opted to field, last year’s finalists restricted West Indies to an under-par 118 before their openers polished off the target with 13 balls to spare.
Pitch and Toss
Pitch Report – It’s searingly hot at 37 degree Celsius. 63m and 53m square boundaries, the straight hit is at 73m. A bit of breeze blowing across and that should assist the pacers. The color of the grass will keep the pitch compact, the pacers should get a bit of help early on.
South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and chose to bowl with an extra spinner in the playing XI. West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews batting first had batting line upto 8 players with good pacers and spinners in the playing XI.
Nonkululeko Mlaba career-best 4 for 29 restrict WI to 118 for 6 in 20 overs
Wolvaardt won the toss and opted to field, leaning on the Dubai’s propensity to aid chasing teams. It would also be kinder on the body to bat when the big shadows cover the field of play.
Marizanne Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka’s relentless pace forced West Indies to start with caution. Windies skipper and trump card Hayley Matthews was the first to crack, who nicked a wide short ball to the keeper. The impact was immediate with Qiana Joseph and Stefanie Taylor retreating into a shell.
After an unsuccessful leg before appeal in the 7th over, she got her bounty two deliveries later with a length ball outside off to Dottin that drew her to take a shot, only to hole to Wolvaardt waiting at extra cover. Shemaine Campbell started with promise as Taylor dropped anchor at the other end. But it was Nonkululeko Mlaba’s day in Dubai as she struck twice in the 12th over, beating Campbell for pace and seeing off Chinelle Henry off consecutive balls.
A safe crawl followed from Taylor and Aaliyah Alleyne, but Mlaba took out the latter with help from an athletic catch from Tazmin Brits between cover and point. A 35-run stand between Taylor and Zaida James took West Indies to a sub par yet modest 118/6. By the end, Taylor could barely stand thanks to the sun slurping away at her energy and slowly trudged her way back to the pavilion, never to return again for this match.
West Indies couldn’t really get out of the blocks, with bat or ball. Stefanie Taylor was their top scorer, with 44 not out off 41. But they never seemed like putting up a huge total, and South Africa never seemed at risk of failing to chase it down.
Nonkululeko Mlaba struck once in the powerplay, firing a flatter delivery into Qiana Joseph’s off stump to end a pained innings (4 off 14 balls). But she did the majority of her damage through the middle, by which stage West Indies were already battling to put up a decent score. She was tight with her lines, and that quicker ball was dangerous. She bowled Shemaine Campbelle off her thigh pad in the 12th over, before slowing it down and getting Chinelle Henry caught behind next ball.
In her final over – the 16th of the innings – she had Aaliyah Alleyne failing to keep an off-side slash down, before Brits took a spectacular diving catch at cover. Nonkululeko Mlaba finished with 4 for 29 from her four overs, having only conceded two boundaries – a four to Deandra Dottin and a six to Taylor – though she did also bowl five wides down the leg side off her hat-trick ball. It was South Africa who won the toss and elected to field in Dubai, and they picked up key scalps in the powerplay, removing both openers.
The experienced Marizanne Kapp bagged the prized scalp of West Indies captain Hayley Matthews, who edged behind for 10, prompting jubilant celebrations. And fellow opener Qiana Joseph struggled to get going, before being cleaned up by Nonkululeko ‘Lefy’ Mlaba for a scratchy 4 from 14. West Indies ended the powerplay on 31/2, with the experienced pair of Deandra Dottin and Stefanie Taylor at the crease.
Kapp returned for her third over to prize out the dangerous-looking Dottin, who had found the boundary three times before departing for 13(11), but West Indies recovered well through Taylor and Shemaine Campbelle, who steadied the ship with a 30-run partnership. But it was the class of Nonkululeko Mlaba that kept West Indies in check, with the diminutive spinner picking up two in two balls to remove Shemaine Campbelle (17) and Chinelle Henry (0), and returning to snaffle the wicket of Aaliyah Alleyne too.
Nonkululeko Mlaba finished with figures of 4/29 – returns that were even more critical given a hand injury that prevented Sune Luus from bowling her full allocation.
Zaida James (15* from 13) joined Taylor to steer West Indies to a total of 118/6 from their 20 overs, with Taylor hobbling from the field after an innings-saving knock in high temperatures under the Dubai afternoon sun. But that score proved well under-powered in the face of South Africa’s opening blitz.
The victory was a function of solid bowling performance from Mlaba in particular, who was introduced into the attack in the fourth over and struck with her fourth delivery, a slider breaching Qiana Joseph’s flat-footed drive. Either side of that strike, the experienced Marizanne Kapp struck two telling blows on the West Indies. First, she dismissed Hayley Matthews after sending down a string of deliveries on the channel outside off-stump, eventually getting the West Indies captain to nick off.
The returning Deandra Dottin began with a bang, hitting her first ball and three of the first eight she faced for boundaries. However, her stay in the middle was short as Kapp had her driving uppishly to cover where Laura Wolvaardt held on to a simple catch. Having been reduced to 32 for 3 after seven overs, the pair of Stefanie Taylor and Shemaine Campbelle were pushed into recovery mode
The duo brought back a semblance of control to the innings, which included a 14-run takedown of Annerie Dercksen in the ninth over. But the rebuilding job was only half done when Mlaba sent the West Indies innings spiraling out of control once more in a fateful 12th over. Campbelle wore a slider on the thigh with the ball rolling off to dislodge the bails.
Off the very next ball, Chinelle Henry was made to defend on the front foot and Mlaba generated just enough side spin for the ball to kiss the edge on the way to ‘keeper Sinalo Jafta, who held on to a sharp catch. However, it needed Wolvaardt to see the DRS recourse on the on-field decision to get the decision in her team’s favour.
With half the team in the hut, the onus on West Indies was to bat out the full quota of overs and a consequence of that was that the next three overs (13-15) brought exactly 15 runs. Taylor did hit a six over long-off in Mlaba’s last over but not before the left-arm spinner had earned herself a fourth wicket, that of Aaliyah Alleyne, whose attempted cut shot ballooned towards cover where Tazmin Brits completed a sharp catch diving forward. Taylor batted through to remain unbeaten on 44 but even so South Africa were left chasing a sub-par total.
Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits guides South Africa to thrashing 10 wicket win vs WI.
An impressive bowling showing from South Africa left them needing 119 to win the Group B contest, with Marizanne Kapp taking the big wickets of Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin, and Nonkululeko Mlaba returning the pick of the figures with 4/29. And the South African openers made easy work of the chase, with Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits putting in a dominant display to reach their target with 13 balls to spare.
Wolvaardt set the tone with a glorious drive early in the powerplay, and West Indies’ struggles with the ball were only compounded when Zaida James was hit in the face by a shot off her own bowling and was forced from the field having just bowled a single delivery of her allocation.
West Indies turned to eight bowlers in total as they searched for a breakthrough, but the events were in vain, and they will now turn their attention to important games coming up against Scotland, Bangladesh and England in group B. The nature of South Africa’s win will give the squad hope that they can go one better than the last edition of this tournament and take the title, and with Wolvaardt (59*) and Brits (57*) in such excellent form they will be a threat to all of the top teams.
West Indies’ best chance of making a match out of it lay in striking early. But the pair of Wolvaardt and Brits were in no benevolent mood on a track that continued to play fair, even if a tad slow. Both batters laced a drive through the covers each for a boundary in the first over bowled by Henry to get the chase going. West Indies suffered a further setback in the second when Zaida James had to leave the field after a Wolvaardt straight drive ricocheted off her hand to strike the bowler on her chin, causing an immediate swelling.
After Wolvaardt struck Henry for two more fours, South Africa had raced off to 26 after three overs. By the end of the PowerPlay, they had 43 on the board and were comfortably clear of any asking rate pressures. The next four overs were more sedate and brought only 25 runs with West Indies’ spinners, aided by the spread out field, able to keep a lid on the boundaries.
But South Africa were in no hurry and both Wolvaardt and Brits could canter to their half-centuries, off an identical 45 balls each. Between them, they also hit 13 boundaries in all and coasted to the highest partnership (for any wicket) against West Indies before polishing off the chase unseparated.
Both Wolvaardt and Brits struck authoritative boundaries in the first over, bowled by Henry. Brits was quieter through the rest of the powerplay, but Wolvaardt was on the charge, hitting especially memorable boundaries through the leg side to move to 29 off 20 by the time the fielding restrictions ended. Brits, in the same period, collected 12 off 16.
With the required rate whittled down to about 5.5 an over, the pair set about accumulating through the middle overs, playing largely risk-free cricket. Wolvaardt was dropped on 33 by Karishma Ramharack, who couldn’t hold on to a difficult return chance. But otherwise, South Africa’s progress was smooth.
They got to 100 off the first ball of the 15th over, as Wolvaardt reached her half-century off the 45th ball she faced. Brits got there next over, also off her 45th ball, having struck four further boundaries since that powerplay. West Indies were never able to put either batter under serious pressure for long.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Laura Wolvaardt the winning skipper said : Not that easy, one of the harder knocks I’ve had physically, especially fielding first at 2 PM and then coming in to bat after that was definitely not easy. Not ideal (over-rate), had to squeeze in quite a bit of spin after the halfway mark.
We were like 7 minutes down at one stage, Tough to manage with the heat, we were able to make it. Excellent all-round. The way Kapp started with the ball was amazing and then to have Mlaba take four wickets, it’s amazing. And then to win it with ten in the shed is amazing as well.
Hayley Matthews the losing skipper said : Obviously a very disappointing game, not the way we wanted to start the tournament. We have to pick the pieces up quickly, a game in two days’ time and we have to be able to bounce back really quickly. It’s a long tournament. They bowled really well.
We were able to build some partnerships in partnership, but not able to strike the way we wanted to. Zaida (James) getting a knock on her face, hopefully that’s just a cut and she’ll be alright. Just monitoring Stef (Taylor) and hopefully she recovers.
Nonkululeko Mlaba Player of he Match for her career best 4-29 said : This is very special for me as I know I am playing for a lot of people back in South Africa. Representing my family, I have the names at the back of my shirt. Always love playing for my country, feels good.
For me, it was just about sticking to the stumps, just don’t leave the stumps no matter what happens. I think that worked really well today. The support from my mates, always grateful for that. I was sitting in the changing room as it was quite hot outside and I kept clapping, they (Wolvaardt and Brits) did well and I am so happy for them.
South Africa kickoff their World Cup campaign with a clinical win. Opting to bowl, they restricted West Indies to a below-par score of 118 with Mlaba (4/29) being the pick of the bowlers. In reply, South Africa hardly broke a sweat. Laura Wolvaardt was quick to get off the blocks, she hit 6 boundaries in the powerplay as her team scored 43/0 in that phase.
Ramharack created a chance against Wolvaardt in the 8th over but failed to hold onto a return catch. Post that, Tazmin Brits upped the ante. Both the SA openers brought up their fifties and wrapped up the proceedings with 19 balls to spare.