Proteas Women rebound as Mlaba's spin magic and Brits' century propel World Cup comeback

The Proteas bounced back from their humbling 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England last week with a six-wicket win against New Zealand to help set their Women’s Cricket World Cup journey back on track.

The effort was led by the wizardry spin of Nonkululeko Mlaba, who claimed four wickets as she helped restrict the White Ferns to 231 all out. 

Tazmin Brits and Suné Luus led the charge with the willow. Brits smashed her fourth century in five innings while Luus finished on an undefeated 83.

South Africa’s World Cup campaign had the worst possible start when they were demolished by England last Friday. The left-arm finger spin of Linsey Smith — bowling mostly arm balls — undid the South African top order as they were dismissed for a paltry 69 runs.

“It didn’t sit well with me, I was actually very naar (nauseous),” Brits said about the team’s performance in their opening match. “I didn’t even want to eat that night, and I overthought the process completely. 

“We put that in the past as quickly as possible, and we said we had to move on to the next game.”

Move on they did with a commanding performance with bat and ball against New Zealand.

Brilliant Brits

South Africa’s brilliant victory on Monday is even more satisfying given that the two players with the heaviest weight of expectation on their shoulders haven’t yet found their groove in India and Sri Lanka.

Skipper Laura Wolvaardt and all-rounder Marizanne Kapp have both failed to deliver with the bat so far. Instead, it is Wolvaardt’s opening partner who has been in tremendous form.

Brits’ 101 off 89 deliveries against the White Ferns means she is the first women’s player to score five centuries in a calendar year.

She stated before the start of the tournament that she would score three centuries at the Cricket World Cup. That’s one ticked off already.

What makes Brits’ five centuries in 2025 even more impressive is that they have all been scored away from home, in Colombo in Sri Lanka, Cave Hill in the Caribbean, Lahore in Pakistan (twice) and now Indore in India.

It takes Brits’ century mark in the 50-over format to seven, with an incredible conversation rate, having only been dismissed between 50 and 100 on two occasions.

It took Brits only 41 innings to reach seven centuries — no other women’s batter has done it quicker.

Only her opening partner, Wolvaardt, has more centuries for South Africa, with nine.

While all the attention has been on the elegant strokeplay of the captain, Brits’ brutality from the other end has been a shining light.

Bright start

South Africa’s start in the tournament was vitally important and another slip-up against New Zealand, the same team they lost the T20 World Cup final to last year, would have had the team playing catch-up early on.

South Africa next take on India on Thursday, who are favourites for the tournament given their form and advantage of playing at home. After that they will take on the rest of the subcontinent in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

The Proteas women would be overwhelming favourites against the aforementioned trio of teams if the matches were played at any other country, but the conditions in India and Sri Lanka even out the contest a fair amount.

They don’t want to go into the back end of the tournament needing a victory in their final match of the World Cup, either, in which they face reigning champions Australia.

South Africa’s net run rate took a massive knock after their harsh loss to England, a factor that will come into the equation if they finish the round-robin stage with the same number of points as another team.

Four out of five wins in their remaining matches would mean that it wouldn’t come to that, and their passage to the knockout stage would be safely secured.

The team need more players to play a starring role if they are to achieve that target. DM