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South Africa 155 for 5 (Brits 45, Los 36*, Tahoe 2-20, Penfold 2-27) New Zealand 144 for 8 (Kerr 61, Betts 45, De Klerk 3-24, Class 3-26), an 11-point lead.
South Africa bounced back from their fourth T20I defeat with an 11-run win in the fifth and final match to level the rain-hit series 1-1 in Benoni on Sunday. Tazmin Brits and Sune Luus did most of the work with the bat, but it was the bowlers who won the match for South Africa, with Masabatha Klaas and Nadine de Klerk picking up three wickets each to stop New Zealand 11 down in a moderate chase.
Asked to bat, captain Laura Wolfhardt and the Brits put on a quick 36-run stand at the top, Wolfhardt doing most of the scoring before being dismissed for a 20-ball 24 in the fifth over by Leah Tahoe. Anneke Bosch joined the Brits, and the two took South Africa to 75 for 1 at the halfway mark, but the two batsmen were dismissed within three overs of each other, and South Africa were 115 for 3 in 15.1 overs, with the scoring average. After it slowed down.
Luus contributed an unbeaten 36 in 23 balls, and despite two shots from Tahuhu and Molly Penfold, South Africa got out to a competitive 155.
South Africa needed an early wicket, and Class got one when she dismissed Kate Anderson for 11 in the third over. But Susie Bates and Amelia Kerr took control of the match from that point on and pieced together a 97-run stand for the second wicket. Unfortunately for New Zealand, the pace of scoring was not great, and when Betts was dismissed for 45 in the 42nd over in the 16th over, by De Klerk, New Zealand still needed 39 to win. Kerr’s dismissal of Klaas, twice later, made matters worse.
None of the remaining New Zealand players reached double figures as Klaas, man of the match, and De Klerk did all the damage and South Africa finished on top.
South Africa had earlier won the three-match ODI series 2-1.
