A sweet day with a bitter ending as the Proteas Women fell agonisingly short in their opening clash at Newlands against Sri Lanka by a mere 3 runs.

The fans came out in their numbers and got behind their team. The crowd as usual was superb and nearing the end of the match. When the big hits were being struck the fans made their presence heard.

As usual, I walked around and soaked up the vibe despite the anxiety of crowded places, it does tend to be a bit too quiet in the media centre. A mother and a son were sitting on the oaks and eagerly posed for a picture as they spoke about how much they were enjoying the day and what this tournament means for South African cricket and women’s cricket in general.

It was also amazing to see the “kids” section on the oaks where faces were being painted and kids were just running around and playing having an absolute blast.

Back to the cricket action though, After Sune Luus won the toss and elected to bowl first, Shabnim was right on the money and tested the Sri Lankan openers from the get-go, she kept asking questions and probing with every ball being bowled. Her second over which was the third of the match was a maiden and she finished with figures of 1-22 while Marizanne Kapp was the pick of the bowlers with 1-15. Sri Lanka got off to a circumspect start being 28 without loss at the end of the powerplay, the next four overs went for 17 runs and 1 wicket.

The skipper then found her groove and led from the front with a brilliant 68 from 50 balls and Vishmi Gunaratne was the next best scorer with 34-ball 35 as Sri Lanka was restricted to what seemed like a meagre total of 129-4 in their 20-over allotment which seemed to be enough.

Skipper Sune Luus spoke about how Sri Lanka’s spinners would be a challenge and it proved to be the case as they collectively picked up the seven wickets with Inoka Ranaweera starring with 3 wickets for just 18 runs.

South Africa were ahead of the rate for most of the game but after the powerplay kept losing wickets and in clusters. Sune Luus and Sinalo Jaftha fought at the end striking some much-needed boundaries but as the run rate kept creeping up so did the pressure, and the emotions were running high, I’d assume. Sri Lanka were pumped and sharp in the field as the singles were being forced into twos as the pressure kept building.

South Africa will have to dust this off quickly and move their focus along to a very strong New Zealand side whom they face on Monday in Paarl.

But all is not lost. Spain lost their first game in the 2010 Fifa World Cup which was hosted in South Africa and became champions, the Springboks too lost their first match in the 2019 Rugby World Cup and we all know how that ended, keep the faith.