England Crushes South Africa By 9 Wickets At The SuperSport Park In Centurion

14 Hours Ago

Charlie Dean celebrates with her teammates at the 3rd T20I on 30TH November 2024 / Getty Images.

By Mercy Kosgei

On Saturday, England crushed South Africa by nine wickets at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The English team delivered a dominant all-round performance to secure a 3-0 series victory limiting South Africa to their lowest total in the T20I series. In the 3rd and final T20 International series, England won the toss and opted to bowl first.

 Player of the match, Charlie Dean's 3-26 with Lauren Bell 2-24 restricted South Africa to 124. Lauren Bell and Lauren Filer claimed three wickets in the first four overs before Dean struck twice, reducing South Africa to 45-5 within the first eight overs.

 In the opening over, Lauren Filer bowled South Africa’s Anneke Bosch out and Faye Tunnicliffe (1) was caught by England’s Maia Bouchier at short mid-wicket leaving South Africa at 3-2.

Maia Bouchier dominated the powerplay to score 35 off 21 balls, hitting five fours and a six. Dani Wyatt-Hodge then took over, winning her second consecutive half-century. Her boundary in the 12th over brought her to 53 off 31 balls, having struck 10 fours and a six.

Laura Wolvaardt, South Africa's captain, was absent due to illness. They also rested opener Tazmin Brits and spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba.

However, South Africa’s Annerie Dercksen 19 off 12 and Sune’ Luus scored 21 off 17 briefly counterattacked, hitting a few boundaries, but at the end of the fourth over, Dercksen was dismissed by Nat Sciver-Brunt off a delivery, leaving the score at 25 for 3.

Player of the Match Charlie Dean commented in a statement, “I knew the pitch was going similar to what we had, Lauren Bell and Lauren Filer, both set us up nicely. I'm starting to come into my own a little more. I'm feeling more confident in the powerplay and I've been able to park it when I get hit for runs. In T20 cricket that's inevitable. I just try to do my best. ODI is my favorite format so it will be nice to play and have a longer spell."

Player of the series Nat Sciver-Brunt commented, "It's so important to get off to a good start. We've made a conscious effort to hit the ground running. Batting has been fun and it's a little different on each wicket. Figuring out to play differently on each ground is part of the job. We just have to do things for longer."

England captain Heather Knight commented,” That was a dominant performance, really pleasing. We've challenged the girls to be really free and the batting was outstanding. We've taken the learnings from the World Cup and how we want to move forward with clarity and we've spoken about not wanting to rip up trees because we have done a lot right. I'm pleased with how we've performed over this series."

Hoping to pick up their first win, South Africa now has to try and pick themselves up for the three-match ODI series starting in Kimberley on Wednesday.