Knight Stars As England Complete Clean Sweep

Knight Stars As England Complete Clean Sweep

Heather Knight scored an unbeaten half-century and took two wickets as England secured a 3-0 series win over South Africa

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England Women 183-5 (Greenway 63, Knight 55no) beat
South Africa Women 181-9 (Knight 2-15) by 5 wickets
Third One-Day International, Potchefstroom
Scorecard

Heather Knight took a brace of wickets and then scored an unbeaten half-century as England Women beat South Africa Women by five wickets to complete a 3-0 One-Day International series clean sweep.

Knight returned figures of two for 15 and Arran Brindle two for 20 as South Africa Women were held to 181 for nine before Knight and Lydia Greenway passed 50 as England reached their target with seven overs to spare.

South Africa's top order got them off to a good start - Shandre Fritz making 16, Trisha Chetty 30 and Alison Hodgkinson 34 - before Brindle, Knight and Jenny Gunn (1-36) combined to reduce the hosts to 102 for six.

Mignon du Preez (9), Marizanne Kapp (1) and Charlize van der Westhuizen (3) all fell cheaply although a late rally from Sunette Loubser, who made 24, and Denisha Devnaraina, who hit 20, helped them counter attack.

Loubser became Georgia Elwiss's maiden international wicket when she was caught by Tamsin Beaumont, who also stumped Dane van Niekerk (16) off the bowling of Danielle Hazell.

England then made a poor start, losing openers Charlotte Edwards (1) and Danielle Wyatt (3) before another double blow saw Sarah Taylor and Brindle depart in quick succession for 15 and one as England slipped to 42 for four.

Greenway, who made 63, then put on 87 with Knight, whose score of 55 not out in 73 balls was her second ODI half-century, to help her side recover.

Her dismissal with the score on 129 gave South Africa renewed hope but they were denied by Knight and Gunn, who made 28 - the pair sealing the win with an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership worth 54.

The two sides begin a three-match series of Twenty20 Internationals on 27th October.

© Cricket World 2011