Visakhapatnam, Oct 13 South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt gave credit to her players for hanging in there as Bangladesh applied pressure and gave credit to Marizanne Kapp, Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk for hauling the team to victory in a key Women's World Cup encounter in Visakhapatnam on Monday.
Kapp struck a patient 56 and shared a crucial partnership with Tryon (62) while de Klerk slammed a four and six in three balls to seal victory with three balls remaining.
South Africa reached 235/7 in 49.3 overs chasing Bangladesh's 232/6 built on a patient half-century by Sharmin Akhter (50 off 77) and the fastest ODI fifty ever by a Bangladesh player by Shorna Akter (51 off 35). The Bangladesh bowlers then applied tremendous pressure and reduced South Africa to 78/5 before Kapp, Tryon and de Klerk saw them home.
"Nerves are shot, that was a lot closer than we wanted, but glad we got the points.Kappy and Chloe were amazing. Not the start that we wanted. Tried to be watchful, build partnerships, but we lost wickets. At least we're getting over the line. There have been times we've lost these games, and our middle order scoring runs is good to know," said Wolvaardt in the post-match presentation.
She said not getting early wickets against a watchful Bangladesh was frustrating for her bowlers, and she was happy that they applied themselves. The South Africa captain praised Shorna Akter for her brilliant knock, which helped Bangladesh reach a defendable score.
"Tried to stay patient, thought slower balls were working well, bowl for the stumps. Frustrating not to get wickets early, but they applied themselves well, and Shorna was amazing at the end," she said.
Though Bangladesh lost a nerve-wrecking encounter that left the players sobbing, skipper Nigar Sultana Joty was satisfied with the fight they put up. She also said they fell 10-15 runs short.
"Really proud of the way we fought to the last ball. The girls are so young. We fight for each and every run; we're very emotional, so it was a great learning curve. We have lost early wickets in the power-play, so we wanted a partnership. Maybe we were still 10-15 runs short," said Joty.
She was all praise for young batter Shorna Akter for her brilliant knock, which helped Bangladesh score 82 runs in the last 10 overs after being 150 in 40 overs.
"I've been talking about her for a long time. The way she batted was a show we were really enjoying, and showed how we should bat," she said.
The skipper said they had discussed their approach with the ball and was happy that they showed good spirit. "We talked about putting it on the right length, maybe we fell down, but we showed good spirit. My team was very young, but we kept going," she said.
She said she will tell her team to be proud of their effort despite falling to their third successive defeat.
"Be proud of how we have done, and we have three more games left. The way we played, we gave them a tough time in the middle," she added.
--IANS
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