Tazmin Brits leads Proteas Women to commanding series win over West Indies

The Proteas Women thrashed the West Indies by 166 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method in the final ODI to clinch a 2-1 series victory on Tuesday night. 

The third and final game at the 3Ws Oval in Barbados was bogged down by a bit of rain, but the game eventually got under way before a couple hours delay.

The Green and Gold went in to bat first for the third consecutive game and by this time, already knew what the plan was - destroy.

Opening batters Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits did just that, thrashing 83 runs in the first powerplay of the game. 

Brits’ destruction with the bat saw her record the only South African century of this series, knocking 101 from 91 balls, with an impressive strike rate of 110.

Brits slapped eight fours and four sixes in her innings, and did not look fazed by the West Indian bowling attack. 

Captain Wolvaardt was her usual composed self and played a leader’s innings with 76 off 75 balls.

Wickets fell in the middle, with a few scores to add to the openers’ grand tally.

Their 184-run partnership ended in the 27th over after spinner Afy Fletcher removed Brits from the crease. 

Marizanne Kapp was the only other contributor with the bat with her 34 runs. 

The rain returned once again and ended the South African innings on 278/6 in 45.5 overs, asking quite a bit from the Windies, especially in the wet conditions. 

The Proteas attack came out firing, picking up the top four batters within five overs and putting a ton of pressure on their middle order, which crumbled.

Their top-six batters had only scored 30 runs

Aaliyah Alleyne (32 off 49 balls) and Jahzara Claxton (42 off 32) put up scores for their team in toward the tail-end, but it was a little, too late.

Masabata Klaas proved to be too much to handle for the West Indies batters, with her clinical spell of 4/25 from six overs squeezing the hosts even tighter. 

For the second straight game, Nonkululeko Mlaba struck vital blows for her team, this time picking up 2/25 from seven overs.

Annerie Dercksen was not so lucky with the bat in this series, but did manage to bag two wickets toward her game tally.

The Proteas Women will have to keep their bats swinging, though, as those arms will need to be loose for this Friday’s first T20 format game of the series. The ladies will play another three matches to decide an outcome for the short format.