England women secure T20 World Cup win over Proteas

England women produced a strong all-round performance to secure a comfortable seven wicket win over the Proteas women in their T20 World Cup clash at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the UAE on Monday night.

Having won their opening match of the tournament against West Indies, this loss shouldn’t impact the Proteas too much, but they will need to win their final two games, against Scotland on Wednesday and Bangladesh on Saturday to secure their place in the semifinals.

“They are must win games for us. I think both of them can be pretty tough in these conditions, so we will have to be on our A game,” said Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt after the match.

In the game the Proteas won the toss and chose to bat, but were kept largely in check by England in their innings as they could only reach 124/6 by the end of their 20 overs.

Wolvaardt top scored with 42 off 39 balls (3×4) but fell at a crucial stage, while some good hitting towards the end of the innings from Marizanne Kapp, 26 off 17 (3×4), and Annerie Dercksen, 20no off 11 (2×4; 1×6) helped boost them to a defendable total.

Pick of bowlers

Sophie Ecclestone was the pick of the England bowlers, picking up 2/15 in her four overs, which saw her awarded the player of the match award.

England’s chase then got off to a slow start as they struggled for runs early, while also losing the wickets of Maia Bouchier (8) trapped LBW by Kapp, and Alice Capsey, 19 off 16 (3×4), popping a return catch to bowler Nadine de Klerk leaving them on 50/2 in the ninth over.

Opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 43 off 43 (4×4) and Nat Sciver-Brunt, 48no off 36 (6×4) then combined for what proved to be a match winning 64-run third wicket partnership to take them to the brink, before Sciver-Brunt crashed a four to get them home with four balls to spare.

Speaking about the overall performance Wolvaardt said: “We are obviously very disappointed. I think 10 to 20 more runs with the bat could have made things interesting.

“We also didn’t take our chances in the field. The bowlers bowled quite well, but we have to tighten up on the other two (batting and fielding).”