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 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.
Filer and Bell deliver early blows
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.
Dean creates pressure and reaps rewards
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.
Shangase, de Klerk lead South Africa’s brief recovery
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.
But Shangase’s dismissal – in an unfortunate manner – came at an inopportune moment for South Africa and that applied the brakes to their scoring. She looked to turn one across but the ball deflected off her pad to the wicketkeeper Amy Jones, who whipped the bails off quickly and found that Shangase’s foot was not grounded. De Klerk also fell a couple of overs later and South Africa’s innings ended with a whimper.
England batting template makes light work of the chase
Despite their early exit from the T20 World Cup earlier this year, England captain Heather Knight insisted that they will not take drastic action and back their attacking template. Their batters have put particular focus on attacking more inside the powerplay, which was in display in Centurion with a paltry target in sight. Following scores of 42 and 48 respectively in the first two games, England managed to score 61 in the powerplay this time.
Bouchier was the attacker in the opening stand, particularly targeting Eliz-Mari Marx in the third over of the chase that cost South Africa 20. She hit five fours and a six in her stay, and Wyatt-Hodge was on only 12 off 13 when Bouchier fell. The experienced opener then changed gears to score 41 off her next 18 balls – first peppering Tumi Sekhukhune, in for Mlaba, for back-to-back boundaries and meting out the same treatment to Luus a couple of overs later. She also tonked Shangase for a six and a four on the penultimate over of the chase, which was aptly completed by her. She powered Tryon over cover to take England home and bring up her fifty.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
