The Junior Proteas beat Ireland by seven wickets in the Super Six stage of the tournament, in a match reduced to ten overs a side after the start was delayed by close to two hours due to a wet outfield.

The Irish won the toss and elected to bat first in Sarawak – a decision that may come back to haunt them.

Batting first, the team from the Emerald Isle was bundled out for just 35 runs in 9.4 overs, thanks to another outstanding bowling display by the South Africans.

Upfront, Frey Sargent top-scored for the Irish with nine runs off eight balls, while Julie McNally contributed eight.

Mieke van Voorst. Photo: X

Monalisa Legodi was the absolute star with the ball for South Africa, taking 4/4 in her two overs, including three wickets in the 7th over. Captain Kayla Reyneke further established herself as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with figures of 3/2 in 1.4 overs.

In addition to South Africa bowling well, their fielding was simply sublime with Mieke van Voorst taking no less than three catches, of which one was an absolute stunner.

South Africa was set a target of 36 runs for the win, but their run chase got off to a slightly shaky start as Jemma Botha and Diara Ramlalan lost their wickets to Jennifer Jackson in the first over, scoring just four runs and a duck respectively.

However, Simone Lourens scored 14 runs and Reyneke was unbeaten on 16 to steer South Africa to victory in just 6.1 overs.

Kayla Reyneke and Simone Lourens. Photo: X

After their fourth-straight win in the tournament Reyneke said their confidence is growing with each victory, but it is also very important to believe in each other. 

“Look, I’m very proud of the girls – it's never easy to watch and wait till you hear when the play is going to start, but good effort from the girls,” said Reyneke.

“It was a good bowling effort in the first innings and then we just to finish it off. There's no specific secret or anything that we have – we just stick together as a unit and we know what our strengths are, and we know what we are capable of doing. We back that and we back each other.”

The unbeaten South African team will face the USA in Kuching on Tuesday, and a win in their final Super Six match will be enough to secure a place in the semi-finals. Tuesday’s game is scheduled to start at 04:30.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek dg