Laura Wolvaardt became the youngest South African to 2,000 runs with a dominant 80, as South Africa won the first of five ODIs against India by eight wickets.
Wolvaardt (21 & 315 days) beat Quinton de Kock (23 & 48 days), Jacques Kallis (23 & 121 days), AB de Villiers (23 & 349 days), Graeme Smith (24 & 1 day) and Dane van Niekerk (25 & 373 days).
Stellar performances from Shabnim Ismail (3/28) and Laura Wolvaardt (80) and Lizelle Lee (83) were the highlight of the day.
Having won the toss and electing to field first, South Africa put on a clinical bowling display and restricted India to 177/9 at the end of 50 overs, with Shabnim Ismail being the standout bowler, registering impressive figures of 3/28 in her 10 overs.
Nonkululeko Mlaba was also effective and finished her 10 overs with 2/41.
After reducing India to 40/3, Indian captain, Mithali Raj, and Harmanpreet Kaur set about rebuilding the Indian innings, scoring 50 (85) and 40 (41), respectively. Deepti Sharma made a valuable 27 (46) as well. In the end, however, 177/9 was not a defendable target.
The South African openers, Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt, scored 82 (119) and 80 (110), respectively to seal the chase for South Africa, with nine overs to spare.
Photo: Steve Haag/BackpagePix
