A dominant performance with bat and ball saw the Proteas Women beat the West Indies by 50 runs in the 2nd T20I.

Having been sent in to bat first, South Africa impressively worked their way up to an imposing 165 for 3 on another slow track at North Sound.

It was another routine start for the hard-hitting Lizelle Lee, but she started off as second fiddle to her skipper. Lee finally found her fluency when she stroked three consecutive boundaries off Aaliyah Alleyne’s gentle medium pace.

However, the Windies made a key inroad when van Niekerk offered a simple catch to Hayley Matthews, ending a 53-run opening stand.

While Lee continued to score briskly, Marizanne Kapp found it difficult to get out of her shell. Nonetheless, Kapp provided decent support for Lee, who brought up her half century in the 13th over. Matthews dismissed both Lee and Kapp in the 18th over, and the Proteas were badly in need of some late acceleration.

Enter Laura Wolvaardt. She’s better known for her solid strokeplay but she took her game to a new dimension when she smashed all of the last four balls of the innings for sixes. What looked like a reasonably competitive score soon turned into a robust score in the space of those four crucial deliveries.

Despite having the upper hand at halftime, early wickets were important for the South African bowlers. Kapp was off to an expensive start, but struck in her second over to remove the dangerous Hayley Matthews.

Deandra Dottin briefly threatened, but the introduction of spin proved to be the master stroke. Nonkululeko Mlaba, the left-arm finger spinner, got right to work. Dottin counterattacked with consecutive boundaries, but Mlaba won the battle after breaching the stumps on her very next delivery.

Both the openers’ dismissals brought about an immediate scoring slowdown. Kyshona Knight (13 off 22) struggled for timing and became Mlaba’s second victim – also bowled – in the 10th over.

Kapp then took two more wickets to reduce the Windies to 91-5 as the Proteas closed in on a comprehensive victory with just under 5 overs left.

Ayabonga Khaka took the Windies’ 6th wicket for 110 runs. Klaas added another to her tally as the Windies lost their 7th for 112. Victory was inevitable with the Windies needing 53 in the last over.

Khaka took her 2nd to add misery to the Windies’ outing as the Proteas ended her overs with 2/7.