The Women’s Cricket World Cup got off to a soggy start on Tuesday when heavy rain descended over Pretoria, causing all four opening matches to be abandoned.
At Supersport Park, a partnership of 90 between Shandre Fritz and Claire Terblanche restored South Africa’s fortunes, after Ireland appeared to have got the better of the home side.
South Africa got off to a good start, scoring at six runs an over, until Cri-Zelda Brits was bowled by Barbara McDonald for 17 in the sixth over. Teenage prodigy Johmari Logtenberg had a rare failure, when she was caught behind by Ann Linehan for seven.
Alicia Smith was next to go, when she played on to Nicki Coffey for 5. It had been a nightmare over for Coffey, who bowled three no-balls and a wide in her opening over.
Daleen Terblanche and Alison Hodgkinson put on 30 for the fourth wicket before Terblanche was caught by Linehan off Jill Whelan for 36. Captain Alison Hogkinson made 12 before she was bowled by Miriam Grealey.
Hodgkinson’s departure brought Fritz and Claire Terblanche together, and immediately, the run rate picked up. Their running between the wickets was excellent, aided to some extent by some poor fielding by Ireland. Their 50 partnership came up off just 64 balls, and they faced 110 deliveries in their partnership of 90.
The partnership came to an end when Fritz was run out by the Irish captain, Clare Shillington, just two short of her half century.
The first interruption for rain came after 45 overs. At that stage, South Africa had 186 for six.
Lunch was taken early. When South Africa came out to finish their innings, the light was very poor, and both sides were having difficulty seeing the ball. Tamara Reeves was caught by Linehan for two. Only three overs were bowled before the rain returned, leaving South Africa on 204 for seven.
Claire Terblanche was not out on 41 and Charlize van der Westhuizen had six.
Both captains captains expressed disappointment after the match, with each confident that they could have won. The South African captain, Alison Hodgkinson said she was very disappointed that they had not had a chance to bowl to Ireland.
”The conditions for bowling were excellent, and when we saw the movement their bowlers were able to get early on, we knew that some of our bowlers would be able to do very well,” she said.
”Conditions weren’t ideal for batting, but we made life a bit difficult for ourselves. I think we went into our shells a bit, but the partnership between Shandre and Claire really brought us back into the match,” she said.
”It was good to see the middle order really batting well, and their running between the wickets was excellent.” Team coach Stephen Jones said it was very important that the middle order had had a chance in the middle.
”Our openers put on big scores in the warm-up games, so the middle order players didn’t get a chance to bat. It’s very encouraging to know that they are firing well, and that we have batters on form from one to seven, ” he said.
The Ireland captain, Clare Shillington, said her team had been confident that they could win the match. ”We thought we had a real shot at a win, and we backed ourselves to score the runs,” she said. ”I thought we bowled very well, although the extras were very disappointing.
”We were very pleased that we were able to cut down on their runs — the way they started, we thought they could score as much as 300, so we were pleased by the way we kept the run rate down.”
In the other matches, tournament favourites Australia were looking good against England, restricting them to 169 for seven in their 50 overs.
Defending champions New Zealand were 18 for two after three overs and five balls, in reply to the West Indies score of 178 for eight. Sri Lanka were all out for 116 in the 47th over of their match against India, who were on four without loss after two overs when the rain began.
With all of the matches abandoned, the teams are level on three points each after the first round of matches. The second round of matches are to be played on Thursday. South Africa will play the West Indies at Centurion Laudium, India play Ireland at the Tshwane University of Technology, New Zealand play Australia at the LC Oval, and England play Sri Lanka at Harlequins. – Sapa