The South Africa Women’s tour of England is its second phase as both the teams played their 1st ODI of three match series on Monday. The hosts, England beat the visitors by 5 wickets to lead the series 1-0.
Winning the toss, South Africa decided to bat first. After having a decent start, the team seemed to topple after the wicket of star batter Wolvaardt. From 26 for 1, the team reached 108 for 5. After that, C Tryon (88 off 73) and Nadine de Klerk (38 off 53) came in to rescue and formed a 97 run partnership to take the team’s score to 205.
Not many runs were added after that. The team lost the next 4 wickets within the span of scoring just 13 runs. N Sciver for England took the most, 4 wickets. K Brunt sent 3 batters back to the pavilion. The team wrapped the visitors in 47.4 overs at the score of 218.
Chasing a rather easier target of 219, England got off to a good start. Even after losing opener Tammy Beaumont in the 3rd over, the team managed a good partnership of 78 runs for the 2nd wicket. Emma Lamb was a major contributor in the partnership. She also finished her century in her partnership for the next wicket with Sciver. The 89 runs partnership where Natalie played an explosive innings of 55 runs off 36 balls took the hosts closer to the victory.
The South Africa bowling didn’t look as promising in front of confident England. The batters scored runs easily as the team went on to win the match in just 33 overs. Nadine de Klerk took 2 wickets for South Africa while Kapp, Khaka and Sekhukhune took 1 wicket each.
The young Emma Lamb, who was only playing her third match was awarded with Player of the match award for her exceptional 102 runs knock off 97 balls.
It was a total team effort from England’s side as they went on to win the match by 5 wickets with a hefty 107 balls to spare. The teams will play the 2nd match of the 3 match ODI series next on Friday, July 15th.
