The South Africa Women’s cricket team won the three-match ODI series against Ireland on Friday, December 19, 2025, in the third and final clash. Proteas Women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt bagged both Player of the Match and Series award. The opening batter scored two centuries in the series and ended her campaign with 255 runs in total, three innings at a strike rate of 111.84.
After winning the toss, the Ireland Women’s team decided to bat first but ended up losing their first wicket in the sixth over of their opening batter, Sarah Forbes. But captain Gaby Lewis somehow took control and led the team with her 64 runs off 80 balls performance. The momentum continued with batters Christina Coulter Reilly (37 off 56) and Orla Prendergast (21 off 28) making valuable contributions.
The middle and lower-order batters tried their best but could not add much to the score. Leah Paul scored 30 off 43 while Rebecca Stokell added just 16 runs in 21 balls. Successfully restricting them to 205 all-out, the South Africa bowling line-up dominated the innings. The highlight was Nonkululeko Mlaba, who ended with figures of 4/33.
On the other hand, completing the run chase of 206 wasn’t a tough one, and they proved well enough through their batting performance. Captain Wolvaardt opened the batting and went on to score her second century of the ODI series. She remained unbeaten at 100 runs off 93 balls alongside Faye Tunnicliffe, who was at 15 not out. The middle-order batters, however, made decent contributions, including Tazmin Brits (26 off 21), Karabo Meso (17 off 28), Luus (25 off 23), and Dane van Niekerk (10 off 6).
South Africa completed the run chase in 32.2 overs with only four wickets lost. Two wickets each were taken by Ireland’s Arlene Kelly and Aimee Maguire. After winning the three-match T20Is against Ireland Women by 2-0, they have successfully won the ODI series by 3-0.
Earlier in the first ODI match against Ireland, the Proteas Women started their three-match campaign with dominance, securing the first victory by seven wickets at East London. They continued their run in the second match at Gqeberha, which they again won by a massive lead of 74 runs. With two wins resulting in their favor, the third one was not tough to beat, and they managed it brilliantly in Johannesburg.
