Job done, series won and a much better all round performance by England, starting with Edwards winning the toss, and taking her normal approach that has held them in good stead – I don’t know what a good total is on this ground, so I’ll let them set and if they can get it, we can get one more!
Shrubsole backed her up, taking a wicket with her 4th ball, Wolvaardt the series debutant, caught behind.
Wolvaardt c Taylor b Shrubsole 0(4)
SA wickets then fell in group – Skipper Du Preez and experienced opener Chetty put on a 50-run stand, but two wickets for only 1 run (skipper bowled Elwiss 26 and Kapp for a duck, caught deep backwards square leg by Wyatt) found them rebuilding again.
Du Preez b Elwiss 26 (58)
Kapp c Wyatt b Hazell 0(5)
Chetty fell for 31 to a fantastic over the shoulder running away from the wicket catch at midon, shortly followed by van Niekerk to a possibly high lbw by Shrubsole (not the tallest player and there had been one rather plumb looking one earlier on that was turned down), plus Tryon, clean bowled by Shrubsole to give her 3 in the game finishing with 3-38.
Chetty c Gunn b Cross 31(60)
The big-hitter from the Centurion game, Lee, continued in similar form, joining with spin bowler Luus for an 80 run stand to give them greater respectability, Lee fell to Gunn caught at deep square leg by Wyatt for an almost run a ball 74, Luus falling to a sharp catch by Amy Jones at midwicket for 20 and then Ismail bowled Knight for 5.
Lee c Wyatt b Gunn 74 (77)
Luus c Jones b Knight 20 (44)
The last pair held on to at least use all their balls putting on another 18 runs, finishing on 196. Wides and overthrows were the only blots on Englands copybook, 14 wides and a number of overthrows including one that went all the way to the boundary!
England continued with their new opening partnership, Winfield and Jones, putting on 30 – their highest opening stand of the tour, with a number of heavy blows from both, Winfield’s often finding the fielders, whilst Jones’ found the boundary! Both fell on 30, Winfield behind for 11(18), Jones holing out to Luus for 18 (17).
Taylor unfortunately didn’t last long falling to another great running catch, Kahka hampered by a floppy green had juggled the ball, falling on the ground and coming up victorious for her team mates to jump on top.
Edwards was playing a dabbing game, nudging the ball often behind square off the spinners, finally falling to a well placed slip/gully. She and Knight put on 50 for the 4th wicket, which brought the key partnership of Knight and Elwiss together. Elwiss played a positive game, quickly catching Knights score and then scoring evenly and taking the score into safety past the par score given the gathering clouds.
Elwiss got to her maiden 50 (off 53 balls), just before Knight (84), but fell for 61, significantly past her previous best of 25*, bowled by Ismail with just 8 runs to win, which Knight dispatched pretty quickly with 2 boundaries to win the series.
On to Cape Town for the T2o’s.
crunchcricket 