Proteas Women slump to heavy defeat in World Cup opener against England

The Proteas Women were unable to recover from an early batting collapse in their opening ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 showdown with England in Guwahati, India on Friday, and lost by 10 wickets after limping to 69 all out in the 21st over.

England cruised to the total in the 15th over.

Nat Sciver-Brunt won the toss for England and sent SA in to bat. Skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits opened the batting for SA against a spin-heavy England bowling attack. 

Wolvaardt signalled her intent with a beautiful cover drive for four off seamer Lauren Bell’s second ball of the innings. A lofted Brits drive two balls later also raced to the boundary.

The wheels then came off for the Proteas, who lost four quick wickets.

Wolvaardt spooned a Linsey Smith delivery back to the spinner in the second over, Brits played around an in-swinging Smith delivery and was bowled for 5, before Sune Luus (2) also misread a Bell delivery and the stumps went flying. 

When spinner Smith castled Marizanne Kapp (4) with another in-swinging drifter in the sixth over, the Proteas were in deep trouble at 19/4. 

Sinalo Jafta then tried to bolster the innings with Anneke Bosch. A couple of boundaries off Bell restored some respectability to the SA score after seven overs (31/4), with Jafta scoring at a run a ball. But Sciver-Brunt picked up Bosch with the first ball of her spell, trapped plumb in front off a straight delivery.

Experienced allrounder Chloe Tryon was in with 41 overs still left in the innings and the Proteas’ top order in tatters. They were 38/5 after the PowerPlay, and then 38/6 in the 11th over when Tryon scooped a Sciver-Brunt delivery to Alice Capsey at short midwicket.

Six wickets soon became seven when Nadine de Klerk departed for 3, caught at slip in the 14th over (48/7). The Proteas reached their fifty in the next over. The wicket of Masabata Klaas (3) was soon followed by that of top scorer Jafta for 22 as SA sank deeper into the mire at 60/9 at the end of the 18th over.

When Mlaba was skittled by Charlie Dean it brought the innings to a close on 69 (20.4 overs), the second-lowest total by the Proteas Women at the World Cup. The nature of many of the dismissals revealed a worrying lack of foot movement, with three of the top four batters clean bowled. 

Debutant Smith was England’s destroyer-in-chief with 3/7.

The Proteas also turned to spin early, Tryon trusted with the second over of the innings after seam stalwart Kapp had opened the bowling. Tryon was not as potent a weapon as Smith was without the drift that troubled the SA batters in their innings but was extremely economical, as was Kapp, who she tried to get ball to nip back.  

Chasing such a low total, England didn’t need to take any chances, though, with Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones reaching 23/0 after five overs. They were 30/0 after seven overs when seamer Klaas and spinner Mlaba were introduced into the attack.

At the end of the PowerPlay England’s score was 38/0 with Beaumont on 13 and Jones on 17. The duo then started to let loose, with nine runs coming off Mlaba’s next over. They reached 50 in the 12th over. Klaas was unlucky not to hang on to a return catch after a slower ball had deceived Jones as everything seemed to be going England’s way. 

With the match all but won, Khaka was brought in to bowl. Back-to-back boundaries in a row by Jones left England with six runs to win as the opening batter raced to 39 after 13 overs. England then reached the total in the 15th over, as they won by 10 wickets. 

SA’s next World Cup match is against Bangladesh in Guwahati on Tuesday.