South Africa got off to an ideal start in the tournament with a combination of tight bowling and careful batting as Bangladesh climbed to 10-1 without scoring a single run in the first five overs.
Sobhana Mostari and skipper Jyoti then shared 45 runs for Bangladesh’s third wicket, scoring 38 and 32 runs respectively.
Still, there was an unmistakable sense that Bangladesh had left run-outs in the middle with plenty of wickets in hand as they cruised to a relatively unthreatening 106-3 victory.
Marisanne Kapp, Nonkululeko Mlaba and Annelie Derksen all picked up a wicket each for the Proteas.
When Wolvaardt and the Briton, winners of South Africa’s opening match, started their chase with real enthusiasm, 17-0 after two overs, it felt inevitable that they would quickly slip away. .
But when Wolvaardt became Jyoti’s sixth stunt of the tournament (more than all the other wicketkeepers in Group B combined), Bangladesh’s predominantly spin-based attack quickly slowed down.
The Englishman and Anneke Bosch, who scored 25 run-a-balls, did not appear to be in too much of a hurry despite the chance to increase their NRR.
It remains to be seen whether their cautious realism in ensuring victory without over-considering the NRR is correct.
In any case, if things go as expected and England beat Scotland on Sunday, we’re in for a tense night next week at the South African team’s hotel, watching them play Heather Knight‘s West Indies on TV. Probably.
