SPIN QUARTET GUIDE AUSTRALIA TO OPENING WIN OVER SOUTH AFRICA

Media release

• Phoebe Litchfield posts 23-ball fifty to rescue Australia from rocky start
• Captain Sophie Molineux sets the tone for Australia with two wickets
• Georgia Wareham finishes the job with three for 13

Australia’s spinners shone in a 65-run win over South Africa as the six-time winners made a successful start in their quest to regain the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

Phoebe Litchfield’s quickfire fifty gave Australia (ICC T20I Ranking: 1) energy after they had been reduced to 24 for two inside four overs before Georgia Wareham and Ellyse Perry combined for the biggest partnership of the innings.

South Africa (ICC T20I Ranking: 5) failed to get a stranglehold on their chase of 173, with Sophie Molineux taking two for 17 in her first T20 World Cup game as captain as Australia gained revenge for their semi-final defeat against the Proteas in the 2024 edition.

Litchfield’s fast fifty lights up Australia innings

South Africa struck early with the ball as Kayla Reyneke took a diving catch to dismiss Georgia Voll for a four-ball duck from the bowling of Marizanne Kapp.

Kapp’s roaring celebration was matched by Shabnim Ismail, making her T20I return for South Africa after three years away, after she dismissed Beth Mooney for seven.

With Australia at 24 for two, pressure was heaped on Phoebe Litchfield but she delivered the impetus Australia needed and left the legendary Ellyse Perry as a temporary bystander at the opposite end.

Litchfield took Ismail for 15 runs in the sixth over before the youngster’s bulldozing knock ended the ball after she brought up her 23-ball fifty with Australia at 62 for three.

The Proteas were back in the ascendancy when Ashleigh Gardner departed four balls later, only for Perry and Georgia Wareham to build a 58-run partnership.

Wareham fell for 32 in the 13th over and regular breakthroughs followed as Australia finished on 172 for eight, Nonkululeko Mlaba taking two for 22.

Proteas left in a spin

Aiming to pull off the biggest chase in T20 World Cup history, South Africa got off to a difficult start as Suné Luus and Annerie Dercksen departed cheaply to leave the Proteas seven for two.

Gardner was left looking at her hands as she let Nadine de Klerk slip through her grasp on 11, with the ball dropping over the boundary for six to add insult to injury.

De Klerk, who had been promoted up the order, added only 14 more to her total before she was clean bowled by Wareham, as Australia’s bowling options kept South Africa guessing.

Skipper Laura Wolvaardt had barely been on strike before De Klerk’s dismissal at the end of the seventh over but the onus fell on her with the required rate reaching 10 an over.

Instead, Kapp was run out diving for a second run having taken the single too slowly before Wolvaardt was caught low by Wareham for 44 from 39 balls for Molineux’s second.

Alana King’s inclusion as an extra spinner in place of Tahlia McGrath was vindicated as she posted figures of two for 26, dismissing Reyneke and Sinalo Jafta in the same over to leave South Africa 99 for seven.

Wareham finished the job with the final two wickets to end with three for 13 as South Africa fell comfortably short of their target.

Scores in brief

Australia v South Africa – Old Trafford, Manchester

Australia 172/8 in 20 overs (Phoebe Litchfield 50, Ellyse Perry 36; Nonkululeko Mlaba 2/22, Ayabonga Khaka 2/33)

South Africa 107 all out in 16.4 overs (Wolvaardt 44, Nadine de Klerk 25; Georgia Wareham 3/13, Sophie Molineux 2/17)

Result: Australia win by 65 runs