South Africa women skipper Dan Van Niekerk sets a new cricket world record following her team's crushing victory against West Indies in the ICC Women’s World Cup.

She finished with figures of 4/0 in 3.2 overs as the Proteas bowled out the Caribbean team for a paltry 48 in just 25.2 overs.

She became the first bowler -male or female- to take four wickets without conceding a single run in the history of limited overs cricket.

Chedean Nation, with 26, was the only West Indies batsman to make double figures as South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk became the first bowler, in either men's or women's international cricket, to take four wickets without conceding a run in her final figures.

The damage to the West Indies' hopes came early in the innings as Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail reduced the Caribbean side to 16 for five.

Kapp took four for 14 and van Niekerk an astonishing four for none in 3.2 overs.

"It was quite surreal, if I could script it I would not have written it like that," said van Niekerk. "We had our plans coming into the game and it worked to the tee.

"I'm really proud of the bowlers, especially my two opening bowlers, they were world-class."

To make matters even worse for the West Indies, they dropped both South Africa openers off successive balls.

Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt needed no second invitation as they saw South Africa to victory in a mere 6.2 overs, with a match scheduled for 100 overs lasting just 31.4 in total.

"I think their bowling was very good, it's a good bowling line-up, they have a lot of strong players. But from our side, we just needed to execute our skills much better," said West Indies opener Hayley Matthews, out for four. "The wicket had a little grass on it, but the openers bowled really well today."

West Indies' total the lowest score at a World Cup since Denmark were bowled out for 47 by England in 1993, although Pakistan still hold the record after managing just 27 against Australia in 1997.