Beaumont and Knight see England to series win

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Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight batted England towards a comfortable seven-wicket victory over South Africa in the third ODI at Canterbury to seal the three-match series 2-1.

With the home team chasing 229 to win Amy Jones was the first to fall, clipping a leg stump ball from Ayabonga Khaka into the hands of square-leg in the 12th over with the score on just 39. Sarah Taylor, a centurion at Hove in the previous game, quickly followed for just 5 but Beaumont and Knight steadied the ship and put together a match-wining 154-run partnership.

Beaumont had begun unconvincingly, frequently playing and missing to the probing seam of Marizanne Kapp and struggling to score on a slowing pitch. But she hung around and gradually grew more fluent, eventually compiling a second successive century to end with 105 from 123 balls.

At the other end, Knight was serene, rotating the strike with ease and punching seven strong boundaries to compile a solid and well-controlled 80 off 83. With Beaumont lbw to Kapp with 24 more remaining, Nat Sciver joined Knight to knock off the necessary with six overs left.

South Africa’s innings had seen skipper van Niekerk play the leading hand from No.4 with a 106-ball 95.

A shaky start saw in-form opener Lizelle Lee trapped lbw for just two by the inswing of Anya Shrubsole before opener Laura Wolvaardt and No.3 Andrie Steyn were kept quiet by some tight bowling from the home side.

When tall left-arm spinner Sophie Eccletone had Steyn leg before for a 40-ball 19, the score was 58 in the 18th over, bringing van Niekerk to the crease. She was punchy and positive throughout and found strike rotation far easier than her partner Wolvaardt, who despite a good eye and sound technique was unable to exert much pressure on the England bowlers. Nevertheless, she put on a century stand with her captain, taking the score to 161 in the 41st over, when Wolvaardt was caught by Shrubsole off the seam of Georgia Elwiss having made 64 off 100 balls, hitting just three boundaries.

South Africa were well set for a late assault when van Niekerk fell with the score on 212. She was agonisingly close to a century when a leg-side wide from Katherine Brunt saw her well stumped by Sarah Taylor. But from there followed a late flurry of wickets as South Africa desperately scrambled for runs, with only Mignon du Preez (19) and Chloe Tryon (17) making a notable impact in the scorebook.

In the end their total wasn’t enough against a highly accomplished England side who completed an eighth bilateral series win over South Africa, who are still waiting for their first against England.