Danni Wyatt-Hodge celebrated becoming the first Englishwoman to bring up 3,000 runs in T20 internationals with a blistering 78 from 45 balls, while Nat Sciver-Brunt hit a third consecutive half-century, as England sealed the T20 series with a 36-run win against South Africa.
England amassed a mammoth 204-run total against October’s World Cup finalists – just the fourth time they have surpassed 200 in the format – and the series win will go some way to restoring confidence amongst a group of players who were bruised by the vocal criticism of their own premature World Cup exit.
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But England were helped along by some distinctly average South African fielding, which included dropping Wyatt-Hodge on nine and 29, and Sciver-Brunt on 25, and their own bowling was none too penetrative, with the usually metronomic Sophie Ecclestone conceding 40 runs from her four overs. Annerie Dercksen was let off the hook after being bowled by a Lauren Filer no-ball, and though Sarah Glenn saw her off in the next over – finishing with four for 20 – South Africa smashed 33 runs from the final two overs.
England may have won comfortably in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, but that comfort rested on the weight of their runs, rather than the quality of their efforts in the field.
England had been in trouble at 15 for two in the second over, as Ayanda Hlubi made up for Sunday’s waywardness by taking two wickets in three balls – Sophia Dunkley bagging another duck, inside-edging on to her own stumps. But Wyatt-Hodge responded by driving viciously down the ground to bring up her 3,000-run milestone, carving repeated boundaries over her favoured point region, and slamming Nonkululeko Mlaba over the top for six. Once a bit-player in England’s T20 side who had to deal with being shuffled up and down the order, the 33-year-old Wyatt-Hodge has transformed herself into one of their most consistent players; on Wednesday she officially became their most prolific.
Wyatt-Hodge was bowled by a Nadine de Klerk yorker in the 13th over, but Sciver-Brunt continued to accumulate, before Amy Jones struck back-to-back boundaries in a final-over cameo which tipped the total above 200.
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