Sophie Ecclestone steals show with astounding performance as England overpowers SA in 3rd T20 match

Derby [UK], July 26 (ANI): All-round performance from Sophie Ecclestone helped England beat South Africa by 38 runs in the third T20 match of three-match series here at Derby.
Sophie Ecclestone put on 33 runs in 12 balls while also taking two wickets for the English team as they triumphed over South Africa on Monday.
Nonkululeko Mlaba helped took down the top order of England with three wickets in an impressive performance with the bowl. Tazmin Brits stood up for South Africa with a score of 59 runs in 57 balls as rest of the batting order fell. England debutee Freya Kemp and Sophie Ecclestone took two wickets each for English bowling to reduce the total of South Africa to the score of 138 runs.
England opted to bat first after winning the toss as here at County Ground, Derby. Starting the innings for England came on Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt. Dunkley fell off on the first ball of the England innings with an amazing delivery from South Africa bowler Nonkululeko Mlaba.
Alice Capsey came on the pitch after the dismissal of Dunkley. Capsey the newcomer in the England lineup did not have the chance to bat in her debut in second match of the series at Worchester. Capsey took the opportunity and put on a partnership of 41 runs between her and Wyatt. However, the partnership between her and Wyatt was over as she got dismissed at the hands of Mlaba yet again. It was Mlaba’s second wicket of the match.
The Captain of the England team came up next and was able to put on a decent partnership with Wyatt but was dismissed at 24 runs at the hands of Mlaba yet again. The score was 86 for 3 wickets for England in 11 overs. The wicket of Wyatt came right after making it 86 for 4 for England.
Amy Stones and Maia Bouchier came up next and put on a good show as well. Following their wickets, Sophie Ecclestone put on an explosive show scoring 33 runs in only 12 balls, helping England put on a score of whopping 176 runs in 20 overs.
Mlaba was excellent during the first innings scalping three major wickets of the top half of England’s batting lineup while only conceding 22 runs in her four overs. Masabata Klaas was very expensive and conceded 62 runs in only four overs while only taking one wicket of the hosts. Chloe Tyron also took one wicket for South Africa.
With a score of 177 runs to chase for South Africa, the batting lineup of the team needed to show up. Anneke Bosch and Lara Goodall were first up on the pitch but they couldn’t give South Africa the much-needed head start as an in-swinging yorker from Issy Wong bowled out Goodall in the first over itself at the score of 2 runs.
Tazmin Brits came to save the South Africa innings and stood tall for the team but she couldn’t get much support from the other side of the pitch as wickets of Bosch, Laura Wolvaardt and Mingon du Preez fell down with none of the batters not even being able to get to score of 20.
Freya Kemp debuted for England with an excellent spell for England as she scalped the wicket of opener Bosch and the much-needed wicket of Tazmin Brits as well at the score of 59 runs.
Ecclestone put on a good show with the bowl as she did with the bat, scalping two wickets for the team including the wicket of captain Chloe Tyron at 14 runs on the last bowl of the game. Sarah Glenn and Issy Wong took a wicket each for the team as well. The English bundled up the South African team at the score of 138/6 winning the game by a margin of 38 runs.
Brief scores: England 176 for 6 (Ecclestone 33*, Wyatt 30, Mlaba 3-22) beat South Africa 138 for 6 (Brits 59, Kemp 2-18, Ecclestone 2-24) by 38 runs. (ANI)