Recent Match Report - South Africa Women vs England Women 3rd ...

England 128 for 1 (Wyatt-Hodge 53*, Bouchier 35, Hlubi 1-19) beat South Africa 124 (Shangase 31, Luus 21, Dean 3-26, Bell 2-24) by nine wickets

It was a strong batting performance that saw England seal the three-match women's T20I series against South Africa on Wednesday; it was a powerful bowling performance that helped them register their fourth clean sweep in the format against South Africa in Centurion on Saturday.

England's bowlers rallied around Charlie Dean to restrict the hosts to 124 before the openers all but sealed the win with a 56-run opening partnership. Lauren Filer and Lauren Bell set the tone early with three wickets in the first four overs before Dean struck twice. South Africa were reduced to 45 for 5 inside eight overs but recovered to post a total that was still under par.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Maia Bouchier then attacked from get go and gave South Africans no breathing space. Wyatt-Hodge was particularly impressive and brought up her second successive half-century to decimate South Africa and hand them a thrashing at home like none other. It was only the second time - the first since 2009 - that South Africa were whitewashed at home in women's T20Is.

It did not help South Africa that they were without captain Laura Wolvaardt, who was ruled out due to illness. They also rested the other regular opener Tazmin Brits as well as their leading spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba.

England got the perfect start after opting to bowl. Filer struck on the second ball of the match to dismiss Anneke Bosch, stepping up to open in the absence of regular openers Wolvaardt and Brits. Aiming for an inswinging yorker first up, Filer delivered a low full toss at 121.1kph, angling in to Bosch, who swiped across the line and was bowled after being beaten on the inside. From the other end, Bell, returning to the XI after the first T20I in place of the ill Sarah Glenn, also struck with her second ball, bouncing out Faye Tunnicliffe for 1.
Annerie Dercksen, batting at No. 3, displayed the stroke-play that was apt for the flat surface in Centurion. She hit Filer for successive boundaries before hitting two more off Bell in the fourth over. She managed to hit through the line on a couple of occasions and capitalised on the short and in-angling deliveries on the other two. But in a bid to flick one full ball angling down leg, she got a leading edge to mid-on to put a dampener to South Africa's scoring rate.

One of the key facets of Dean's play in her career so far is the ability to stay calm in the face of pressure. She was greeted into the attack - the last over of the powerplay - with three fours. Sune Luus hit one inside out over cover and then got a fortuitous edge through the vacant slip region. And then when Dean pitched one slightly short, she pulled it through backward square leg. But Dean still tossed up the next one a bit wider and had Luus miscue it to cover. South Africa were 42 for 4 after six overs.
That soon became 45 for 5 when Dean had Chloe Tryon, South Africa's stand-in captain, chipped one tamely to cover in her next over. She then dismissed the dangerous Nadine de Klerk at the death to finish with figures of 3 for 26. Despite going for 12 in her opening over, Dean bowled as many as 14 dots in her four-over spell spread across the three phases.

When Tryon became the fifth South Africa batter to fall by the eighth over, the hopes for the T20 World Cup runners-up weren't too high. Which is when Nondumiso Shangase and de Klerk got together. The aim at that stage was to not give England further openings, and to merely consolidate. De Klerk managed to keep the scorecard ticking and found the middle of her bat even as Shangase continued to find her momentum. But it was Shangase who broke the drought of five boundary-less overs for South Africa.
She managed to pick up a couple of fours through the backward square leg region two overs in a row. First she waited a bit and pulled one when Freya Kemp misdirected a slower ball down leg, and then when Bell bowled a short ball, she once again peppered that region. De Klerk then attacked the disciplined Dean by charging down and hitting her over cover. Shangase gave Kemp the charge again to bring up the 50-run partnership with de Klerk.