Razeen Gutta
The Momentum Proteas were blown away in the third Women’s ODI against England in Leicester, with the hosts winning the series 3-0.
South Africa won the toss and put England in to bat, with openers Emma Lamb (65) and Tammy Beaumont (119) batting through half of the innings to put up an opening stand of 149/0.
Shabnim Ismail got the breakthrough when she bowled out Lamb. However Beaumont kept the scoreboard ticking to get to her century with a strike rate of 111, hitting 20 boundaries.
By the time Nonkulukelo Mlaba picked up the big wicket, the hosts already had 236 runs on the board — giving the rest of the batters a chance to attack.
That is exactly what occurred, with Sophia Dunkley and Heather Knight both getting to their 50s, helping England to their fifth highest one-day total of 371/7 in their 50 overs.
With South Africa’s highest ever chase in a women’s ODI being almost a 100 runs short of what England had scored, the task looked a tough one from the onset.
Andrie Steyn was dismissed just nine overs in for 12 and despite carrying over her form from the last game to get another half century, Laura Wolvaardt departed a few overs later leaving the visitors 86/2 inside 15 overs.
Five overs later Lara Goodall and captain Sune Luus were both gone, with South Africa switching to survival mode for the remainder of the innings.
Marizanne Kapp and Chloe Tyron did a very good job of stabilising the innings with a 100 plus partnership in the middle of the order, but the required run rate continued to climb.
Once the pair were dismissed, the lower order fell in a hurry. Charlotte Dean, Emma Lamb and Alice Richards all claimed three-wicket hauls to send the Proteas from 252/6 to 262 all out inside 46 overs, helping England to a 109 run win.
After the only test match ended in a draw and England came out well on top in the one day format, the Proteas will hope to bounce back in the shortest format of the game when the T20 series commences on Thursday.
