What a match it turned out to be. The game went to the very end & the last ball run out meant that the match ended up a tie.
Australia won the toss & elected to Bat
The match starts as left handed domination, with 2 left hand batters Beth Mooney & Nicole Bolton & 1 Left handed bowler Moseline Daneils forming the starting line-up for the match, Marizanne Kapp was the only right handed (the opening bowler for South Africa Women)
Australia Women started the innings cautiously, scoring 15 of the first 5 overs. The 10th over bowled by Moseline Daneils brought the 1st wicket of Beth Mooney with a score of 14 off 24 bowls, with Australia on 32.
Aussie skipper Meg Lanning took the crease & made a very cautious beginning. But last bowl of Marizanne Kapp in the 13th over beat her defence, disturbing her stumps, on 3, with a score of 41. New batter in all-rounder Ellyse Perry.
Nicole Bolton & Ellyse Perry then build the innings on a steady pace & reached 75 at the end of the 20th over.
Nicole reached her 50 in the 26th over & in the very next over hit a boundary to help the team score cross 100 run mark. Australia was 105 for 2 at the end of the 27th over.
Nicole finally fell to Sune Luus in the 30th over on 63 off 86 (6×4) Australia 121/3. Bringing in J.L. Jess Jonassen, who didn’t last long & also fell to Luus for 1 off 7 & Australia were now 125/3
Next in was the experienced Alex Blackwell, who was propelling the score well along with Ellyse, who reached her 50 in the 38th over.
Both the all-rounders were going very well until Blackwell fell to the South Africa captain van Niekerk in the 40th over at the score of 35 off 30, Australia were now 187 for 5.
Ellyse Villani was next in, & was showing some aggression. Till Luus struck again, this time Ellyse Perry on a score of 69 off 99 (6×4). Ellyse was very soon followed by Ashley Healy on 2 off 3 & the aggressive Villani 24 off 20. Australia women were now 227 for 8 in 47 overs.
Wellington & McGrath then put up a 15 run partnership for the 9th wicket, when McGrath was runout & Amanda Wellington was caught on the very next ball, finishing the Australia Women innings on 242 in 49.5 overs with the help of 14 wides and 1 bye & leg bye each.
Sune Luus & Van Niekerk picking up picking up 4 & 3 wickets each respectively.
Sune Luus was back on the ground immediately along with Lee to open the South African batting inning. Lee took major of the batting, but not for too long as she was caught off Jess Jonassen in the 5th over on 12 off 17 (2×4), with the score on just 16.
Next came in Goodall, but couldn’t contribute much, and fell on a score of 27, & soon on the score of just 40, SAW lost 2 more wickets that of Sune Luus 18 off 31 & Mignon Du Preez 5 off 11.
Marizanne Kapp & D. Van Niekerk then stabilized the innings taking the score past 100 in the 30th over.
Both the ladies brought up their 50’s in the process of building the innings, & build they did. They both added 144 run partnership till the 42nd over, when Kapp was run out on 66 off 104 (5×4), SAW were 184/5.
With Chloe Tryon now on the pitch, who played the support role, as Niekerk was trying to improve the run-rate. In the next 4 overs the duo picked up 34 runs, until Villani bowled over Tryon & Niekerk soon followed, bowled by Jonassen on 81 off 97 balls (8×4) SAW 226/7 in 46.5.
With 16 runs still required to win off 19 balls, the South African tail tried its bit, but lost 2 more wickets in the process on the score of 231 in the form of run out of O. Kirsten by Beth Mooney & Danials bowled by Jess Jonassen.
It was now upto Devnarain & Klaas the last wicket, 8 runs needed of the last over. The pair picked up 3 singles off the first 4 balls.
5 runs required off 2 balls now. Klaas the 11th player hits a boundary.
With the scores leveled, it was now upto who holds their nerves better. And as many previous occasions, the South African 11th player got run out of the last ball.
South African women were helped in a big way by the Aussie bowlers, giving 22 wides.
Niekerk played a captains knock & was adjudged Player of the match for her 81 runs & 3 wickets in the 1st innings.