ICC Women's World T20: Married couple bat together to help South Africa beat Sri Lanka

In what has been the first instance in the history of cricket, South African couple Dane Van Niekerk and Marizanne Kapp batted together in an ICC tournament to put on a partnership of 67 runs to help their team defeat the Sri Lankan Women's team on Monday.

Batting first, the Sri Lankan team managed to score 99 runs of their stipulated 20 overs losing 8 wickets in the process. Only two players got into the double digits as South Africa's Shabnim Ismail picked up 3 wickets in the match. Shabnim Ismail was also declared as the man-of-the-match.

Chasing a small target, the Proteas lost two quick wickets when the scoreboard read 6 runs. Coming at No.3, all-rounder Marizanne Kapp combined with her skipper wife Dane van Niekerk to help South Africa take close to the target. While Kapp scored 38 runs, Van Niekerk finished the game with her 33 run contribution. Incidentally, both the girls picked up a wicket each in the match which was also the 50th of each of their careers.

Van Niekerk and Kapp married in June this year as they became the second couple in the history of cricket after New Zealand pair of Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu got married earlier.

Interestingly, both these cricketers debuted during the 2009 Women's cricket World Cup. Both their careers have run on the parallel lines as the all-rounder duo sits at the Top 10 of the batting and bowling charts of their country.

While Niekerk is the fourth leading run-getter for her country, her wife Kapp sits as the 6th highest run-getter for South Africa. On the wickets column, Niekerk tops the list while Kapp is the 3rd leading wicket-taker for her country.