PROTEAS FIGHT FOR PRIDE

The South African women’s cricket team, the Momentum Proteas, will be fighting for pride in the third and final ODI against the West Indies at Buffalo Park today. After their 57-run defeat in the second match on Saturday, they will want to avoid a clean sweep of the series by the visitors, who also won the first match last Wednesday.

At stake are valuable points on the ICC Women’s Championship table for the 2017 World Cup and the Windies have managed to narrow the gap down to four points between themselves and top-of-the- log Australia. So they will be looking for a whitewash with three wins out of three and more points on the log. “We’re very disappointed with our performance today,” said captain Mignon du Preez after the game. “I think we know that we are a better team by far than the performances we have put together in the last few days. We really let ourselves down in the field, there were a few dismissals that we missed and unfortunately in these types of games you can’t drop players like Taylor and Dottin and expect to get away with it. “We’ve spoken about bowling in the right areas but our line and length is still not what it should be, but I think we did really well to pull their innings back in the end. We just didn’t build a partnership and that’s the biggest problem. One of the top four batters has to bat through the innings and we haven’t done that yet.” She added that the Proteas would go all out today to gain ICC Women’s Championship points. The visitors outgunned the Proteas in all phases of Saturday’s game but the SA girls will need to lift their game drastically and offer more resistance. On Saturday the Proteas started off well after the Windies decided to bat, with Marizanne Kapp claiming both openers, Hayley Matthews and Shaquana Quintyne, for six runs apiece, leaving the Windies two wickets down for 25 after eight overs. Kapp finished her first spell with impressive figures of 2/12 off five overs, but then Windies skipper Taylor was joined by exciting allrounder Dottin and the two batters completely dominated play for the next 23 overs, adding 135 superb runs for the third wicket while the Proteas’ bowling wilted in the hot sun. Dottin started off slowly – she took 13 balls to get off the mark – but then both attacked the bowling ruthlessly, and in particular their cover and straight drives were powerful and most pleasing to the eye. They were also gifted some wayward full tosses and each batter dispatched a six over the boundary. Taylor kept the scoreboard ticking over and reached her half-century off 58 balls in 65 minutes, and as her innings gained momentum it seemed only a run-out could dismiss her. And so it proved as she badly misjudged a throw from the boundary’s edge off a beautiful late cut to be stranded mid-pitch. Her 79 came off 83 balls and included 11 fours and the six. Eight runs later Dottin was on her way for 61, scored off 78 balls with seven boundaries and a six. Thereafter the scoring rate slowed down, but there was enough time for the Windies wicketkeeper Shemaine Campbelle to hit a quick 24 not out as the last five wickets fell for 26 with the tail failing to wag. The visitors were eventually dismissed for 232. Openers Andrie Steyn, 20, and Trisha Chetty started off well with 43 for the first wicket, but except for Chetty, who went on to score 51 off 78 balls (five fours) and captain Mignon du Preez, with 24, none of the SA batters were able to dominate and force a win in a most disappointing and modest finish. The home team finished with 175 off 45.3 overs and without a doubt they will need to improve their batting and catching if they want to win today and glean ICC Championship points. Border supporters will also be hoping that their star player Ayabonga Khaka, who has not been used in the series yet, will get a chance today. She knows the conditions at Buffalo Park well and will be an asset to the struggling side. The final ODI starts at 10am this morning. Entry to Buffalo Park is free.