Lions women bring gloom to the Cape as they win both fixtures against Western Province

The gloom weather over the weekend was not felt by the World Sports Betting Western Province women. The gloom felt by WP came in the courtesy of DP World Lions.

The visiting Johannesburg based side won both fixtures against WP. The Lions won the One Day match on Saturday by 40.

The Lions batted first and had a good first wicket partnership between Palesa Mapoo (18) and Nonkululeko Thabethe (56). The latter would score a half century and was also involved in another good partnership with Maddison Landsman for the third wicket. Maddison (52) would go on and score her own half century, but she also could not build on her good score.

The Lions youngsters Jenna Evans (44) and Diara Ramlankan (25) put the match away for the Lions. Both batters batted with positive intent, with Diara being between the wickets and Jenna playing some exciting shots. The shot of the match was a scoop shot that Jenna played for a six.

The Lions would eventually post a competitive score of 228 for 10 in 49.5 overs. Faye Tunnicliffe took a fifer (5/30), Tatum le Roux took 3 for 31, and Delmi Tucker took 2 for 39.

In reply, WP batters never took off as Proteas women batter Lara Goodall was the first to lose her wicket. Than Dutch wicketkeeper batter Babette de Leede followed soon in a suicidal run out with Saraah Smith. Relebohile Mkhize was the pick of the Lions bowlers as she took 3 for 32.

With the win, the Lions move onto the second spot behind the log leaders Hollywoodbets Dolphins in the CSA One Day women’s cup.

Fortunes stayed the same for WP on Sunday as the Lions won the T20 fixture by 17 runs.

Lions batted first again, and this time around, Palesa (20) was joined by Maddison (19) at the top of the order. Kirstie Thomson anchored the Lions batting innings well with an unbeaten 55 at number 3. The star of the Lions batting performance was Nonkululeko as she scored an unbeaten 27 ball 41. She was striking at a rate of 151 to ensure the Lions reached 144 for 4.

WP batters struggled to impose themselves on the Lions bowlers. The only batter to make any sort of a challenge for the Lions was Delmi Tucker (59). Lions spinner Sarah Nettleton took 2 for 21 to help restrict WP to 127 for 6.

The Lions have spolied WP perfect T20 season as the Lions became the first team to defeat WP in the CSA divison 1 T20 competition.