South Africa registered a crushing 189-run win over Ireland in the final ODI of the tour on Friday. After Laura Wolvaardt (89) and Sune Luss (93) took the visitors to 278/5 with the bat, pacer Shabnam Ismail chose 5/8 to bowl out the hosts for just 89 runs, leading to the ODI The series was won 3–0.
Sune won the toss and elected to bat, but it was Ireland who got off to a great start, restricting the visitors to 16 within the first five overs before coming in sixth: Andrey Steyn with an excellent straight hit from Sophie McMahon Later run out. Short caught to the batsman trying to reach the non-striker’s end.
This brought in-form Lara Goodall to the crease, but the left-hander was dismissed for 18 runs for a big shot; She headed into the field for Rachel Delaney but failed to connect and Mary Waldron did the rest behind the stumps.
At 57/2 in 14 overs, South Africa were not in trouble, but neither were they in the most comfortable position. But Laura rebuilt the innings; The former completed his fifty in 79 balls, while the latter brought up the same landmark in 70 balls. Together their partnerships totaled 177, the fifth highest for South Africa in women’s ODIs.
Jane Maguire provided a much-needed wicket in the 45th over, with Laura falling 11 runs short of her fourth ODI century. Chloe Tryon scored some quick runs and scored 17 off 12 before hitting Arlene Kelly at mid-off on her 13th delivery. Arlene then denied Sune a century as she finished with figures of 2/40 in her 10 overs.
Ireland’s chase got off to a dangerous start as Shabnim – who took six wickets in the last two ODIs – got both Gabby Lewis and Rachel Delany caught for ducks in their opening over. Her superb new-ball spell attributed to Leah Paul in the fifth over, and Shauna Kavanagh being bowled for a 10-ball duck in the seventh over, left Ireland at 8/4.
When McMahon reached second slip in the ninth over, Shabnam looked ready to complete her five-wicket haul in the powerplay – but the catch was missed. Nonetheless, Raisibe Nozakhe held responsible for McMahon shortly after leaving Ireland on 13/5.
From there, Mary Waldron and Arlene shared a 57-run partnership for the sixth wicket. But Sune trapped Mary lbw for 32 runs. Wickets kept falling as Ireland were all out for 70/5 at 89, with Ismail taking the suitably final wicket to take the final with incredible figures of 5/8 in 8.5 overs, which also included four maidens.
Brief Scores: South Africa 278/5 in 50 overs (Sune Luce 93, Laura Wolvaardt 89; Arlene Kelly 2/40) beat Ireland 89 (Mary Waldron 32, Shabnim Ismail 5/8) in 32.5 overs.