Australia has dominated South Africa in the first women’s ODI of their series with the Proteas severely impacted by star batter Marizanne Kapp retiring hurt.
Kapp brought up her half-century, guiding the ball through gully and coming back for a second run.
However, the 34-year-old was struck on the elbow by the return through from Georgia Wareham and reacted in agony, dropping her bat and falling to the ground.
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Kapp then proceeded to rub her elbow but smiled during the process.
Medical staff attended to the 126-match veteran before she was taken from the field.
“It was reasonably innocuous to begin with because she had a bit of a smile on her face after it … she was smiling, [and] all was good at that stage however support staff came out and as it sunk in there was obviously a little more damage done,” former Australian cricket Mel Jones explained on Fox Cricket.
Retired 10-Test veteran Julia Price added Kapp’s scans will “hopefully be good news” but admitted it wasn’t a good sign.
“Once you get hit on the end of the arm you lose feeling for a while and [then realise] that’s not coming back and that’s when you start to panic and the real pain sets in,” she said.
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Kapp’s injury came at an awful time for South Africa after they were 3-9 when she entered the match.
Wickets continued to fall around her but the 34-year-old’s half-century brought South Africa close to triple figures.
Unfortunately, Kapp left the field at 5-93 and the Proteas collapsed to be all out for 105.
Alana King did most of the damage for Australia, securing figures of 3-19 while Kim Garth finished with 2-18.
Beth Mooney was the star in Australia’s chase, finishing 52 not out as her side reached the target, two wickets down in 19 overs.