CAVE HILL – In a one-sided se­ries de­cider at the Three Ws Oval on Tues­day, South Africa Women de­liv­ered a com­mand­ing per­for­mance to de­feat West In­dies by 166 runs (DLS method), se­cur­ing a 2-1 ODI se­ries vic­to­ry in Bar­ba­dos.

Af­ter rain re­duced the vis­i­tors’ in­nings to 45.5 overs, South Africa post­ed a for­mi­da­ble 278-6 af­ter be­ing asked to take the first strike, pow­ered by a bril­liant cen­tu­ry from Tazmin Brits and a com­posed half-cen­tu­ry from cap­tain Lau­ra Wolvaardt.

The West In­dies, set a re­vised tar­get of 288 in 39 overs, crum­bled to 121 all out in just 27.5 overs, with on­ly Aaliyah Al­leyne 32 and Jahzara Clax­ton 43 of­fer­ing brief re­sis­tance.

Ear­li­er, South Africa’s open­ers laid a pun­ish­ing foun­da­tion, with Brits and Wolvaardt adding a mas­ter­ful 184 for the first wick­et.

The in­ex­pe­ri­enced Windies at­tack had lit­tle an­swer, as the Brits’ ag­gres­sive 101 knock, fea­tur­ing eight fours and four six­es, set the tone, while Wolvaardt an­chored the in­nings with a flu­ent 75.

Just af­ter get­ting to her cen­tu­ry, Brits went to Afy Fletch­er af­ter fac­ing 91 balls and hit­ting eight fours and four six­es.

Not too long af­ter, Fletch­er was in busi­ness once again, as she rat­tled the stumps of Wolvaardt to peg back the Pro­teas at 200 for two in the 31st over.

Fletch­er seemed to have found her groove, as in the same over, she al­so bol­wed Non­du­miso Shangase for eight.

Skip­per Hay­ley Matthews then got in on the act, as she snared the wick­et of Sune Lu­us for four to leave the con­test more re­spectable at 207 for four, be­fore rain took the play­ers off the park.

On the re­sump­tion, Ma­rizanne Kapp’s un­beat­en 34 pro­vid­ed late mo­men­tum be­fore rain in­ter­vened once again. Fletch­er was the pick of teh bowlers, fin­ish­ing with 3-53.

The chase be­gan dis­as­trous­ly for the hosts, as they lost four wick­ets for just 10 runs in­side three overs. Cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews was the first to go for 8, and her pre­cious wick­et trig­gered a dra­mat­ic top-or­der col­lapse that left the Windies reel­ing at 40-6.

Seam­er Masaba­ta Klaas was the main ear­ly de­stroy­er, as she sent back Matthews, Qiana Joseph for 1, Chinelle Hen­ry for a duck, in her dev­as­tat­ing first spell.

It took some re­siliant bat­ting from Al­leyne and Clax­ton to briefly re­vive hopes with a 65-run stand, but once they de­part­ed, the in­nings fold­ed swift­ly.

Klaas fin­ished with 4-25, and she was well-sup­port­ed by Nonku­l­uleko Mla­ba 2-25 and An­ner­ie Der­ck­sen 2-1. The de­feat marked a harsh end to the West In­dies’ hopes of a home se­ries win, how­ev­er, cap­tain Matthews was pleased that some of the young play­ers showed fight, even in de­feat.

“It’s al­ways go­ing to be tough when you have a young group around, but these girls are here to learn, and I think they’re ea­ger to learn. I think we can still take a lot of pos­i­tives from cer­tain mo­ments with­in the game. I think the way (Clax­ton) came about and bat­ted to­day was beau­ti­ful. Some­thing that prob­a­bly a lot of peo­ple didn’t ex­pect from her down at 7 or 8. It just shows that the young ones with­in the group have a lot of po­ten­tial, and they just need to be nur­tured well.”

The two teams will now turn their at­ten­tion to the three-match T20 se­ries, which starts on Fri­day.

CMC

Brief scores

SOUTH AFRICA 278-6 in 45.5 overs (Tazmin Brits 101, Lau­ra Wolvaardt 75, Ma­rizanne Kapp 34 not out; Afy Fletch­er 3-53, Aaliyah Al­leyne 1-36, Hay­ley Matthews 1-46, Jahzara Clax­ton 1-48).

WEST IN­DIES 121 all out in 27.5 overs ( Jahzara Clax­ton 43, Aaliyah Al­leyne 32; Masaba­ta Klaas 4-25, Nonku­l­uleko Mla­ba 2-25, An­ner­ie Der­ck­sen 2-1).

South Africa Women won by 166 runs un­der the Duck­worth-Lewis Stern (DLS) method.

South Africa Women won the 3-match se­ries 2-1