Allround South Africa demolish Board President's XI

Following a washed out first match, South Africa chose to bat on a sunny afternoon in Surat. Lee and Tazmin Brits got off to a terrific start, taking the attack to Mansi Joshi, Pooja Vastrakar and Tanuja Kanwer in the power play. The pair added 61 runs in just 6.5 overs before Tarannum Pathan began Board President’s XI’s fightback.
The off-spinner first dismissed Brits for 20, and then had Wolvaardt (7) stumped in the following over. In combination with Devika Vaidya, the leg-spinner, she helped slow the run rate and build some pressure. The pair bowled 27 dot balls between them.
Meanwhile, Lee brought up her half century in 39-balls with eight fours and a massive straight six off the bowling of Kanwer. In the company of Nadine de Klerk, she added 42 runs for the third wicket.
The arrival of Mignon du Preez in the 15th over saw South Africa’s run rate rocket. Despite the fall of Lee— caught and bowled by Vaidya for 65— du Preez kept the scoreboard ticking, finding the boundary on a consistent basis. She smashed an unbeaten 40 off just 18 deliveries, including six fours and a six over long on. It was an innings that powered the visitors to 174 for 5— a total that looked unlikely when the hosts’ spinners were weaving a web through the middle overs.
In reply, the hosts got off to the worst possible start, losing four wickets inside the first three overs. Shabnim Ismail removed Shafali Verma for a duck to begin proceedings, after which Ayabonga Khaka accounted for both Vanitha VR and Sushma Verma in the second over. When Ismail returned to dismissed MD Thirushkamini for two, Board President’s XI had crashed to 6 for 4 in 2.4 overs.
It was a start the hosts were unable to recover from. Although the pair of Bharti Fulmali (23) and Devika Vaidya (19) tried to resurrect the innings with a 31-run stand it was never going to be enough to get the chase back on track.
Sune Luus joined in on the fun for South Africa, accounting for three wickets to further reduce the hosts to 58 for 7 in 11 overs.
Joshi (20) and Pathan (15) hung around for a few overs, but they were simply prolonging their team’s suffering. Eventually, Ismail returned to clean up the tail, as Board President’s XI were all out for 91.
Ismail and Luus were the visitors’ best bowlers with three wickets apiece, while Khaka finished with figures of 2 for 7, including a whopping 20 dot balls in her 4 over spell.
 
Brief Scores: South Africa 174/5 in 20 overs (Lizelle Lee 65, Mignon du Preez 40*; Tarannum Pathan 2-23) beat Board President’s XI 91 in 20 overs (Bharti Fulmali 23, Mansi Joshi 20; Shabnim Ismail 3-11, Sune Luus 3-17) by 83 runs.