Rain play havoc on Day 1 of Division 2 Women's National Week
- Cricket SA
- Mar 30
- 2 min read
With the Hollywoodbets Pro Series concluded, the battle for promotion to top division has reached a crucial stage as the women’s Division 2 competition kicked off in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Promotion and relegation come into effect for the first time since the professionalisation of women’s cricket two seasons ago.
The tournament structure sees CSA Women’s Division 2 teams divided into two pools of five, competing in both 50-over and T20 formats. However, only the One-Day competition contributes to the promotion standings, unlike the Pro Series, where points from both Hollywoodbets Pro50 and Pro20 are combined.
The competition got off to an unfortunate start on Saturday as three of the five matches were rained out while the other two were reduced to just 20 overs with KZN Inland and Glencore North West Dragons claiming day one victories.
The three scheduled matches that were called off were the matches between Eastern Province and Limpopo, Northern Cape and Easterns and Mpumalanga and Border.
With promotion into the Pro Series on the line, the teams will be eager to get on the field in the remaining four days.
In the matches that were concluded, Glencore North West Dragons continued to push for promotion with a 48-run win over Boland at the University of Free State.
Batting first the Dragons had openers Deidrè van Rensberg (35) and Lizri de Villiers (32) to thank for getting them to their score of 127/6 in 20 overs.
Maria van der Vyver (2/21) and Michaela Hanekom (2/23) were the pick of the Boland bowlers as the team from the Cape would need 128 for victory.
Ultimately, the North West bowlers were too strong for the Boland batters and they were restricted to 79/8 from their 20 overs.
No-one in the Boland side got over 20 with Chantelle van Schoor (17) and Van der Vyver (17*) top scoring.
From a bowling perspective, Anè Saunderson was the pick of the North West attack picking up 3/15 from her four overs to help North West to an important win on day one.
In the only other completed match on day one, KZN Inland inflicted an eight wicket defeat on Kei.
Batting first Kei were bowled out for 71 inside 15 overs by the Inland bowlers with Jessica Candler picking up 4/12 and Amanda Ngcobo and Kiandri Bierbaum both taking two wickets each.
Seventeen was the top score for Kei with Yamkela Zangqa and Chumane Majambe both reaching this mark before being dismissed by Bierbaum and Ngcobo respectively.
It was a swift response from the Inland batters who knocked off the required runs inside 15 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Megan Wessell was the destroyed in chief at the top of the order scoring 37 not out off 45 balls while she was supported by Candler who finished on 12 not out off 17 balls.
Day two's action at the CSA Division 2 Women's Week will see KwaZulu-Natal Inland take on Northern Cape, Limpopo come up against Kei, Eastern Province and Mpumalanga go head-to-head while Border face North West and Easterns take on Limpopo.
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