SA women out of semifinal running
A clinical fielding and bowling performance by the West Indies saw South Africa lose their second match out of three at Galle International Stadium on Sunday.
The 10-wicket loss means the team are no longer in the running for the semifinals in the ICC Women's World T20 in Sri Lanka.
West Indies captain Merissa Aguilleira won the toss and asked South Africa to bat first. The first wicket fell at the start of the third over and wickets continued to tumble at regular intervals.
Marizanne Kapp was put in to open the batting with Trisha Chetty. The latter was stumped by her counterpart for two off five balls.
Kapp (3) was dismissed nine balls later by ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year Stafanie Taylor. Two balls after that, Taylor struck again, removing the formidable Susan Benade for two. South Africa were 11-3, putting pressure on the middle order.
No one was allowed the opportunity to rebuild the innings as the Windies kept the pressure up.
Du Preez was quickly dispatched for a duck, trapped lbw after she was defeated by a ball from Taylor at the start of the sixth over.
Shandré Fritz followed after facing seven balls without scoring, and SA were 11-5.
Alison Hodgkinson tried to put up a fight but was not allowed any breathing room as the clouds gathered overhead, warning of imminent showers.
She was dismissed for 6 off 29 balls in the middle of the 10th over. South Africa were 20/6 after 11 overs when the rain began to pour in ernest, calling a brief halt to proceedings.
The break did the team well, and as soon as play restarted, Dané van Niekerk and Shabnim Ismail went about restoring some semblance of respectability to the score.
They put on 46 runs in 9.5 overs before Ismail was run out for 16, three balls into the final over. Van Niekerk (29) tried to push for more runs but was ultimately run out off the final ball of the innings.
South Africa ended with 70-8.
The West Indies made light work of the chase, with openers Taylor (33) and Juliana Nero (30) cantering home with 62 balls to spare.
"The batting let us down a lot today. We spoke about losing wickets in clusters but it happened again and made for a disappointing match," said SA captain Mignon du Preez.
"We're very sad that this is the end for us and there will be no semifinal match. We started panicking when things didn't go our way and that is something we need to work on in future."
A bitterly let down coach, Yashin Ebrahim-Hassen said: "I'm very disappointed in our performance today. A lot of hard work and sacrifice has come to nothing. We froze on the big stage after playing good cricket in the last two matches.
"It just goes to show how the lack of quality international competition is impacting on the side. Having said that, Dané (van Niekerk) and Shabnim (Ismail) played a brilliant knock."
On a positive note, Ebrahim-Hassen admits that his side has grown exponentially but they need more match experience in order for them to be able to handle difficult match situations.
"There has been a lot of individual growth and growth by the team as a whole. They have come a long way from where we started and most of it due to the camps that were held during the course of the past nine months. Imagine how much more growth we would see if they played more international cricket."
South Africa await the results of today's New Zealand/Sri Lanka match and tomorrow's England/Australia match to find out whether they will take part in the fifth and sixth place play-offs or the seventh and eighth place play-offs on Wednesday.
