The Proteas suffered their first defeat in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup being played in the United Arab Emirates.

On Monday (7/10) night, England beat South Africa by seven wickets in Sharjah to exact revenge for last year’s T20 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town. South Africa had a bat first and was restricted to 124/6 in their 20 overs with the captain Laura Wolvaardt scoring 42.

Laura Wolvaardt. Photo: ICC/Getty

Boundaries were hard to come by as the captain, Wolvaardt, only hit three fours in her inning, while Marizanne Kapp scored 26 off 17 and Annerie Dercksen scored 20 off eleven. The only other notable knock was Anneke Bosch’s 18 runs.

Sophie Ecclestone made it difficult for South Africa to score with 2/15 in her four overs.

In reply, England chased down the target with four balls to spare with Nat Sciver-Brunt top-scoring with 48 not out. Danni Wyatt-Hodge set the tone for the English with the bat with 43 off 43.

Kapp was the pick of the South African bowlers with 1/17 in her four overs, while Nonkululeko Mlaba took 1/22 and Nadine de Klerk took 1/23.

South Africa only had themselves to blame for the defeat against their much-more fancied opponents as their fielding let them down with five dropped catches.

Wolvaardt said their fielding will need to improve if they want to go through to the semi-finals later in the T20 World Cup. “The dropped chances are crucial – two of them coming from me, which is not ideal. I think in these competitions the best fielding side obviously has a great chance of making it very far and it’s definitely something that we’ll have to look at.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge. Photo: ICC/Getty

“It’s not like we didn’t practice it coming into this, so it’s just very frustrating when it happens in the game and yes with the three out on the leg side, it was a constant conversation to players like Nat Sciver-Brunt who ramp.

“It’s just so hard to keep that mid-wicket in and sacrifice the 45. So yes, it was something we were talking about, trying to keep it in for a few balls and then take it out.”

In their next game, on Wednesday at 12:00, South Africa will face Scotland in Dubai.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg