Williams steers West Indies home

West Indies 207 for 7 (Williams 82*) beat South Africa 206 for 8 (Terblanche 68, Brits 53) by 3 wickets
Scorecard

West Indies women edged to a tight three-wicket victory against South Africa, at the Technikon Oval, to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match one-day series, hastily arranged after both teams where knocked out of the World Cup. Chasing 207 to win, Nelly Williams was the star for the West Indies, anchoring the run chase with an unbeaten 82. At 148 for 2 the target looked a formality but a middle-order collapse opened the door for South Africa, before Williams settled the issue

South Africa's top order had put in a solid performance against a West Indies outfit who had, for their part, performed better than expected, to come fifth and gain a place at the next World Cup. Daleen Terblanche (68) and Cri-Zelda Brits (53) shared an opening stand of 121 to give South Africa a solid platform, and Johmari Logtenberg added 40 at No 3. But the middle and lower-order could not maintain the scoring rate and South Africa ended at least 20 runs short of the total they should have made.

The result will not have helped the cause of Stephen Jones, the South African coach, who called on the women to "be serious about the future" after the hosts fared worse than expected in the World Cup - prompting Jones to criticise their board implicitly for their lack of assistance - meaning they will have to re-qualify for the next tournament.