Proteas can’t stand the heat, despite Brits heroics

THE Proteas Women’s team were left to rue a couple of dropped catches and fielding mishaps with opener Tazmin Brits’ 109 not enough to get them over the line in the Tri-Series opener against India in Colombo.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS,

Although Brits was also dropped on 51 by Deepti Sharma off her own bowl-ing and 67 by captain Harmanpreet Kaur at mid-off, India’s overall ground fielding in diving to save boundaries par-ticularly during the death overs proved to be the difference in claiming a 15-run win.

India had totalled 276/6 - which would have been a record chase for the Proteas — courtesy of opener Pratika Rawa’s 78 — her fifth successive fifty-plus ODI score — and Laura Wolvaardt’s team leaking 82 runs in the last 10 overs. This was partially due to fielders overrunning the ball on the boundary and the ill-dis-cipline of the bowlers who sent down 13 wides in total.

“At the end of the day you’ve got to take those catches. | definitely think if we took that we would have maybe chased maybe 240. I personally feel we should have not chased more than 240,” Brits said.