Proteas women cruise to 9-wicket win

The Proteas bowlers set up the comfortable victory after an outstanding performance which restricted the visitors to a paltry 72 for four in 20 overs. Trisha Chetty (32 not out) and captain, Mignon du Preez (29 not out), led the Proteas to the target with nearly six overs to spare.

“I’m extremely proud of our performance today,” Du Preez remarked. “We haven’t played together for nearly five months so we did well to win this game by such a large margin. I hope this is the upward curve for the series and we continue to improve in the next two games.”

The opening bowlers started off proceedings impressively with accurate and consistent lengths, and had Bangladesh in trouble at 24 for two after 10 overs.

At that stage, the run rate was under three to the over and the pressure was on the batters who were struggling to hit boundaries. Lata Mondal (31 not out) was the only batter to make a meaningful contribution after her team mates were unable to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Moseline Daniels (1/4) and Dane van Niekerk (1/14) were the pick of the wicket-takers. However, the entire bowling unit can take credit for an all-round performance.

“Everybody who bowled did really well and stuck to their game plans, I can’t fault them in any area,” Du Preez said.

“We can probably improve on our fielding and support the bowlers a lot more but other than that it was almost a perfect bowling performance.” The Proteas lead the three-match series 1-0 with the next match scheduled to take place at the same venue on Friday.

– Sapa