England begin their tour of South Africa on a winning note as they beat the Proteas by four wickets in the first T20 match at Buffalo Park in East London yesterday.
Their victory means they now take a 1-0 series lead with two matches still to play. The second match will be played at the Sahara Park Willowmoore Stadium in Benoni on Wednesday.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s half century led the way and rescued England from the early loss of wickets and handed them their first victory since their disappointing exit from the World Cup last month with four balls to spare.
Both sides had disappointing outings at the recently concluded tournament, and for different reasons, the Proteas missed out on what would have been their maiden title, while England failed to live up to expectations with their group stage exit.
The series has a lot on the line for both sides. South Africa have made two World Cup finals in a row, but they need to get one over one of the best sides around and secure their first series win against them.
England need to recover their poor showing at the global event, and any momentum carried from this series could come in handy as they build up for the Ashes.
Heather Knight won the toss and put South Africa in to bat. The opening pair of Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits got the home side off to a solid start with a partnership of 34, and they had to work for every run with England having a strangle and cutting off any easy runs.
The constant feature, particularly outside the powerplay, was that the Proteas could not get a hold of the England spinners, and their failure to accelerate in the latter stages of the innings could only limit them to a total of 142.
South Africa lost four wickets with only 29 runs added, and they struggled for momentum and partnerships in their middle period.
A lot of the restrictions were down to the world-class consistent bowling partnerships between the visitors bowling attack, particularly world number one ranked Sophie Ecclestone and Charlie Dean, who were the standout bowlers throughout the innings.
Annerie Dercksen and Nadine de Klerk’s 42-run partnership helped South Africa to a defendable score of 142/5. The Proteas through De Klerk scored 18 runs off a Lauren Bell final over.
In response, England lost the wickets of Danni Wyatt-Hodge (11) Sophia Dunkley (4) and captain Knight (1), and they needed their middle-order batters to stand up.
Nat Sciver-Brunt stepped up, and her fluent innings rescued England from 65/4 and got them within their target with five overs to go. Sciver-Brunt with Amy Jones combined for a stand of 50 runs for the seventh wicket.
The former had to see through the innings and ultimately guided her side comfortably to victory despite losing her wicket when scores were level. Eliz-Mari Marx was the pick of the South African bowlers.
Brief Scores
South Africa 142/5 England 143/6
Annerie Dercksen 26 Sciver-Brunt (59 off 54, 7x4 )
Nadine de Klerk 29 Amy Jones (31 off 19)
Sophie Ecclestone 1/18 Nadine de Klerk 2/20
Charlie Dean 2/21 Marx 3/19