Johannesburg — The Proteas women’s side got the wake up call they probably needed in the first One-Day International against the West Indies on Friday night.
Their lethargy wasn’t costly either in terms of a result, with the match being abandoned due to rain and the lessons learned from that opening match, which the West Indies dominated, will stand them in good stead for Monday’s second match, also at the Wanderers.
The South Africans looked out of sorts, their rhythm not helped by the fact that play was interrupted a couple of times by rain. Not that that should be any excuse. They seemed to take their foot off the pedal after a good start with the ball, and were flummoxed by the powerfall ball striking from Deandra Dottin in her impressive career best knock of 150 not out.
“I think we started really well with the ball,” said the Proteas vice-captain, Chloe Tryon. “The first 15 overs went really good and as a bowling unit we were happy, I felt we let it slip a little bit and allowed Deandra Dottin to do what she does best. It was a world class performance from her. We didn’t slow her down and as a bowling unit we are disappointed. We had the plans, but we just didn’t execute.”
The problem started once Dottin had seen off Shabnim Ismail’s first spell. The support bowlers couldn’t maintain those standards, with lines in particular going awry as Dottin was fed a series of deliveries on her legs, which she picked off with ease.
Only skipper Sune Luus, with a crafty spell of leg-spin was able to put the reins on the West Indies opener. As the innings unfolded, the home side’s fielding grew sloppy too.
Luus had said before the series, that the results didn’t matter as much as some of the experimenting South Africa still wants to do ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand. That’s understandable given that two of the team’s most important players are missing; skipper Dane van Niekerk for this series and the World Cup and opener Lizelle Lee, who contracted Covid.
Lee’s replacement, Tazmin Brits struck some muscular blows in her innings of 32, but she struggled when the West Indies bowled into her body. In fact the touring side’s seamers, Shamila Connel and Shakera Selman were very impressive and the intensity with which they bowled proved too much for the South Africans who lost five wickets in 17.4 overs before the rain ended the match.
“I felt we could have done a little bit better in the beginning (with the bat),” said Tryon. “They bowled really well. We had a few different options that we could have tried, but we also gave our wickets away as well. It was unfortunate.”
Expect there to be some personnel changes for Monday’s match, with Marizanne Kapp, who bowled a couple of balls during the innings break, getting a start and possibly off-spinner Raisibe Ntozakhe as well.
In addition, having now had a taste of what the West Indies have to offer, South Africa must raise the intensity of their play also, because they looked timid too often on Friday. “It’s good that it happened in the first game,” said Brits. “We learned a few lessons here, even though it rained out - rather now than later.”
Monday’s match starts at 10am.