Sun\u00e9 Luus and Mian\u00e9 Smit steered the Proteas Women to a commanding seven-wicket victory over Ireland in the first ODI at Buffalo Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Luus top-scored with 66* off 72 balls, striking six fours, while Smit registered her maiden ODI fifty with 56* from 70 deliveries, including seven boundaries.<\/p>\n
Their efforts ensured South Africa comfortably chased down Ireland\u2019s 209-7, after the visitors were restricted earlier by disciplined bowling, led by Nonkululeko Mlaba\u2019s 3-43.<\/p>\n
After a delayed start reduced the match to 47 overs per side, Ireland won the toss and elected to bat.<\/p>\n
Openers Sarah Forbes (42) and captain Gaby Lewis (14) laid a solid foundation, adding 45 in the first 11 overs before Tumi Sekhukhune (2-32) made the breakthrough, clean-bowling Lewis in the 12th over.<\/p>\n
Ireland continued to build through a 48-run second-wicket stand between Forbes and Amy Hunter (32), taking the score to 93-1 in the 22nd over. Luus then struck with the key wicket of Forbes, shifting the momentum in South Africa\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
The Proteas spinners tightened their grip through the middle overs. Smit (1-14) removed Hunter, while Mlaba accounted for Laura Delany (21) and Leah Paul (2) to leave Ireland wobbling on 139-5.<\/p>\n
A late stand of 32 between Orla Prendergast (28) and Rebecca Stokell (39*) steadied the innings, but Sekhukhune and Mlaba returned to dismiss Prendergast and Arlene Kelly (six), limiting the visitors to 209-7.<\/p>\n
South Africa made a confident start in reply, racing to 38-0 inside five overs. Captain Laura Wolvaardt struck a brisk 31 off 24 balls before edging Orla Prendergast (1-31) to slip.<\/p>\n
Tazmin Brits (27) and Lara Goodall (20) added stability, guiding the Proteas Women to 79-1, but both fell in quick succession to Cara Murray (2-34), leaving the hosts on 86-3 after 14.2 overs.<\/p>\n
With 124 still required, Luus and the 20-year-old Smit took control. The pair combined for a stadium-record fourth-wicket stand of 125, batting with composure and authority to take the game away from Ireland.<\/p>\n
Luus raised her bat for the 18th ODI fifty of her career, while Smit marked her first international appearance on home soil with a career-best innings as South Africa cruised to victory with 61 deliveries to spare.<\/p>\n
The second ODI is at St George\u2019s Park on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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Photo: @ProteasWomenCSA\/X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sun\u00e9 Luus and Mian\u00e9 Smit steered the Proteas Women to a commanding seven-wicket victory over Ireland in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-346294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}