England extend winning run in South Africa to four matches
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
| First women's Twenty20 international, Potchefstroom: |
| England 131-3 (17.1 overs) beat South Africa 128-6 (20 overs) by seven wickets |
| Match scorecard |
Sarah Taylor raced to a half century as England extended their winning run in South Africa to four matches.
The tourists posted a seven-wicket win in the first Twenty20 international, having already claimed a clean sweep of the three-match one-day series.
England restricted South Africa to 128-6 in an innings which began slowly but gained pace when Alison Hodgkinson and Chloe Tryon began to find the boundary.
Hodgkinson made 51 from 37 balls and Tryon cracked 31 from 18.
But England have shown themselves to be a formidable limited-overs team and they were rarely troubled in their run chase.
They suffered the early loss of opener Laura Marsh for a duck, but captain Charlotte Edwards made a comfortable 49 and Taylor clubbed exactly 50 from 33 deliveries in a 98-run partnership to make victory inevitable.
Taylor's dismissal halted their charge, and Edwards fell with the team total on 114, but Lydia Greenway and Arran Brindle continued their good work by steering England over the winning line, finishing on 131-3.
