South Africa scrape home against Ireland

South Africa Women won their Twenty20 match against Ireland Women at Crowthorne, Berkshire by the narrow margin of 8 runs. The winners showed their inexperience in this form of cricket by allowing the Irish bowlers too many dot balls - 57 of the 121 balls bowled.

Ireland won the toss and elected to bowl first. South Africa scored a moderate 111 for 5 wickets in their 20 overs on a large field where boundaries were at a premium. Leading scorers for South Africa were veteran Daleen Terblanche (37 off 42 balls), Analie Minny (22 off 26 balls) and Alicia Smith (20 off 17 balls).

When the Irish team batted it was the South African slow bowlers, left-arm spinner Charlize van der Westhuizen (1 wicket for 13 off her 4 overs) and right arm off-spinner, Sunette Loubser (1 wicket for 9 off her allocation) who slowed the Irish batting down to restrict them to 103 runs for 7 wickets, eight short of their target. The other South African bowler to take wickets was Alicia Smith (2 for 27), while three Irish batsmen were run out chasing the SA total.

Noor Rhode, whose remarkable record as South African coach now stands at sixteen wins in eighteen matches, was unhappy about the number of dot balls allowed by his batsmen, and the rather ragged fielding towards the end of the Irish innings when unnecessary overthrows were allowed.