South Africa 36/3 (6.1)

Ireland 35 (9.4)

South Africa beat Ireland by seven wickets

IRELAND COULDN’T SLOW down unbeaten South Africa as they lost their opening Super Six match at the U19 Women’s T20 World Cup.

Monalisa Legodi turned in a Player of the Match performance as she blitzed through Ireland’s middle order taking four wickets for just four runs.

Saturday’s game in Sarawak was limited to 10 overs per inning due to weather conditions.

After losing openers Freya Sergeant and Rebecca Lowe inside three overs, and with no player managing to better Sergeant’s nine runs, Ireland struggled to just 35 runs in total.

Jennifer Jackson gave Ireland brief hope when she took out Jemma Botha and Diara Ramlakan in the first over of South Africa’s innings.

But Simone Lourens and captain Kayla Reyneke quickly steadied the ship as South Africa raced to a comfortable seven-wicket win to close in on a place in the semi-finals.

Ireland will now be playing for pride in their final Super Six match when they take on Nigeria in Bangi on Wednesday.