South Africa’s young champion, Kayla Reyneke, gave her team’s innings a late boost, smashing an unbeaten 34 off 20 balls to take the total to a respectable 149 for seven in the third women’s T20 against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on Friday.
South Africa’s women had never played at Eden Park, and for much of their innings it showed as they endured a sluggish power-play and a slow mid-section before Reyneke gave the innings an explosive finish with 19 runs, including two driven sixes and a pulled four, coming off the final over from Jess Kerr.
Skipper Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and took first strike, but it was the White Ferns who dominated early on with pace bowler Rosemary Mair yorking Tazmin Brits for a duck with her second delivery. Fellow opener Sune Luus followed immediately afterwards, bowled leg stump by Jess Kerr while attempting a ramp to fine leg.
Wolvaardt, who had a scratchy start, and Annerie Dercksen then put together the biggest partnership of the innings, 51, as they looked to rebuild. Dercksen was in fluent form, cracking two fours and two sixes in her 18-ball 27 before she was bowled by a superb delivery from Sophie Devine that moved away off the seam, just clipping her off-stump.
The South African innings then slowed again, with no boundaries between the 11th and the 16th overs and three wickets being lost for 18 runs in three overs. Wolvaardt was steady rather than spectacular, striking 37 in 39 balls before she was brilliantly run out off an Amelia Kerr direct hit at mid-off as she scurried through for a single.
Devine and Jess Kerr claimed a couple of wickets each in a largely disciplined New Zealand bowling performance that often targeted the leg side, a tactic that throttled South Africa’s momentum until Reyneke’s arrival at the crease with the youngster bashing two fours and three sixes in her cameo.
NEW ZEALAND: Georgia Plimmer, Izzy Gaze (wk), Amelia Kerr (capt), Sophie Devine, Brooke Halliday, Maddy Green, Izzy Sharp, Suzie Bates, Jess Kerr, Lea Tahuhu, Rosemary Mair
SOUTH AFRICA: Sune Luus, Tazmin Brits, Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Annerie Dercksen, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Kayla Reyneke, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Ayabonga Khaka, Ayanda Hlubi, Nonkululeko Mlaba