In a tight game at the Waca, the Proteas Women clinched a 6-wicket win against England with 2 balls remaining in their World Cup opener, writes Naeemah Benjamin.
The Proteas Women got their tournament off to a dream start by beating England for the first time in the T20 World Cup with Mignon du Preez hitting the winning runs in her 100th T20I.
“This was an opportunity for me to step up,” said Du Preez during her post-match interview.
“We said we want to do something special, and this is just the start of something really special.”
They stumbled towards the back end losing key wickets of Marizanne Kapp (38) and Dane van Niekerk (46) in quick succession with the run rate slowly creeping. The duo shared in an 84-run stand for the second wicket.
After winning the toss earlier, the Proteas put England in to bat and did exceptionally well to restrict them to 123/8 in 20 overs. Amy Jones started like a house on fire owning the first few overs.
But the Proteas remained calm and stuck to their plans, bowled tight lines and kept taking wickets at regular intervals not allowing the English to settle. Nat Sciver (50) kept the scoreboard ticking with vital runs.
The bowling and fielding upfront set up the 6-wicket win. Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon, in particular, took great grabs.
Ayabonga Khaka 2/25, Marizanne Kapp 2/19 and Dane van Niekerk 2/20 were the key wicket takers.
Photo: ICC
