JOHANNESBURG - The South African women underlined their status as competition favourites with a comfortable 63-run victory against Pakistan on the first day of action in the ICC Womens World Cup Qualifiers in Sri Lanka on Monday.
South Africa’s win was built on a solid effort with the bat in which Chloe Tryon’s 79 (69b, 5x4, 4x6) was the outstanding performance – and saw her being named player of the match – and a disciplined showing with ball where Marizanne Kapp and Marcia Letsoalo showed excellent form.
South Africa’s captain Dane van Niekerk chose to bat upon winning the toss and there was a typically aggressive start from Lizelle Lee who blasted 18 off 12 balls to provide a quickly built foundation for the Proteas.
That allowed the likes of Mignon du Preez and Laura Wolvaardt time to settle in, while giving the more aggressive South African middle order freedom to play their shots.
Former skipper Du Preez made a controlled 40 and Kapp added 38 off just 41 balls before the major partnership of the innings took place between Van Niekerk and Tryon.
The latter was the aggressor in a stand of 89 for the sixth wicket in which they occupied the crease for 19 overs. Tryon was especially brutal against Pakistan’s trio of spinners, Nashra Sandhu, Ghulam Fatima and Javeria Khan hitting 56 of her runs off that trio at rate comfortably above 100.
Van Niekerk was more than happy to provide the steady hand, feeding her more accomplished partner the strike and scoring 30 off 57 balls.
South Africa ended on 258 in their allotted 50 overs. The Pakistanis had a reasonable start to their pursuit reaching 60/2 in the 17th over. However they couldn’t find anyone to match Tryon’s rapid scoring in their middle order.
Kapp’s typically aggressive and disciplined opening burst ensured there wasn’t a fast start. A double strike from Van Niekerk followed by a runout saw the Pakistanis slump to 83/4 in the 22nd over and there was little comeback for them from that position.
Nain Abidi made 62, but her use of 105 balls to make that score indicated just how difficult a time of it she had against Letsaolo who picked up 1/22 in nine overs and the leg-spin from Van Niekerk (2/35) and Sune Luus, who despite going wicketless conceded just 32 runs in 10 overs.
South Africa’s opening win left them second in Group B behind Bangladesh who beat Papua New Guinea by 118 runs.
The top four teams in the competition will qualify for the Women’s World Cup which will be played in England in June/July later this year. South Africa’s next match is against Scotland in Colombo on Tuesday evening.