On Wednesday 17 March, I attended the first day of Pool A of the CSA Women’s Provincial 1-Day League at the picturesque Vineyard Oval, writes Emilly Norris.
It was my first time attending this tournament. It was a beautiful day for cricket, without a cloud in the sky.
The Western Province Women were up against the Central Gauteng Lions Women in this first game of Pool A. Western Province won the toss and elected to bowl first.
They restricted Gauteng to 129-8 in their 50 overs, with standout performances coming from Robyn Appels picking up 3 wickets for 30 runs in her 10 overs, and Sharne Mayers scoring 37 off 50 balls and hitting 5 out of the 6 fours in the Gauteng innings.
She hit the experienced Appels for 3 fours in the 27th over. In pursuit of the chase, Western Province opened the batting with two youngsters, Nadia Mbokotwana and Kelsey Adams. Adams was caught behind early, which meant that it was time for the skipper, Andrie Steyn, to stride to the crease.
Getting to be a part of this tournament and seeing the talent on show was a valuable experience for me as it motivated me to not give up on playing the game that I love, even if I never get to this level. Mbokotwana played a good hand of 27 off 89 balls, before being stumped off the bowling of Ntozakhe.
However, the standout performance for Western Province was Saarah Smith, scoring 35 off 54 deliveries. Even though it was a low-scoring game, it was a tight one in the end. Province chased the score down with 4.1 overs to spare, ending on 131-8 and winning by two wickets.
