Tazmin Brits’ fifth ODI century of the year steered South Africa to a six-wicket win over New Zealand for their first victory of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonkululeko Mlaba’s four-for meant Sophie Devine’s 85 was only a bright spot as the White Ferns’ bottom order fell to 231 all out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brits and Sune Luus put on a record 159-run partnership for the Proteas at the World Cup to see them to victory, while the White Ferns are still searching for a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a game filled with milestones, Marizanne Kapp, who became South Africa Women’s most-capped player in ODIs, dismissed Suzie Bates, on her 350th international appearance, for a first-ball duck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opener Georgia Plimmer and Amelia Kerr slowly played their way into the game, but with pressure mounting, Kerr sliced a Nadine de Klerk delivery that was caught by a diving Luus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kerr was out for 23 from 42 balls, with Plimmer unable to push on her strike rate once joined at the crease by Devine as Plimmer departed for 31 from 68, having been caught by De Klerk on the boundary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Devine, on her 300th White Ferns appearance, gave New Zealand impetus, and that was matched by her new partner at the crease, Brooke Halliday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 36-year-old playing in her final World Cup reached 50 off 66 balls, and as Halliday neared hers, South Africa missed a run-out chance with Sinalo Jafta unable to take the ball cleanly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the pressure on the Proteas, Halliday mishit a Mlaba delivery, with the spinner safely catching a high ball to break the 86-run partnership and see the all-rounder dismissed for 45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mlaba got her second as Anneke Bosch took a stunning catch to dismiss Maddy Green for four before Izzy Gaze was run out for 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as Devine looked like she might hit her second century in a row, she misread a Mlaba delivery and was bowled for 85 from 98 balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa sensed an opportunity and took it as Ayabonga Khaka got Jess Kerr out for two before Laura Wolvaardt took the pick of the catches, sticking out a hand while in midair to dismiss Lea Tahuhu for Mlaba’s fourth wicket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Zealand’s unravelling ended with Eden Carson being run out to see the White Ferns set South Africa 232 to win, having lost their last seven wickets for 44 runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reply, South Africa started positively as Wolvaardt took three fours off Jess Kerr, but the pace bowler responded by dismissing the captain LBW for 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Wolvaardt’s early departure, Tazmin Brits and Luus played positively and ensured the Proteas passed 69, the total they made against England, in the 13th over as Luus hit the first six of the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That almost seemed to mark the acceleration point of South Africa’s chase as they took 11 off the next over before Brits brought up her fastest ODI fifty with 51 runs in 44 balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luus and Brits passed 103 together for the biggest partnership of the World Cup so far and survived New Zealand’s short-lived attempt to limit their run scoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former skipper Luus passed 50 for the 16th time, and the milestones kept coming as with 133 runs, her and Brits’ partnership became the record for South Africa in a World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brits continued her remarkable year with a seventh ODI century, and her first at World Cups, before finally being dismissed by Tahuhu for 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a small wobble as Kapp and Bosch departed in the space of 10 balls, but Luus was there to see South Africa home, ending on 81 not out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tazmin Brits revealed a new bat and a disinterest in records powered her to a fifth century of the year as she guided South Africa to victory over New Zealand. The opener posted 101 off 89 balls to give the Proteas the perfect platform to chase down 232.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In doing so, she hit her seventh ODI century in just 41 innings, bettering the legendary Meg Lanning as the fastest to achieve that feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFunnily enough, I\u2019m not one for records, but when you mention Meg Lanning, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m above that one,\u201d she said. \u201cBut as long as we are winning games, I am all good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been backing myself a bit more. I am trying to be as positive as I can. We actually had a lot of batting camps, I think that definitely helped me a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve tried to expand my batting a bit more and not be too one-dimensional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I went out there, I just said I am going to be as positive as possible, as we needed this win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually funny, it was a new bat, I haven\u2019t used it once and I think that is going to be a lucky bat from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonkululeko Mlaba had led the bowling efforts for South Africa with her second four-for in ODIs, as New Zealand squandered a positive position despite Sophie Devine\u2019s 85.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brits partnered Sun\u00e9 Luus to knock off the majority of the total, with the latter hitting the winning runs to make 81 not out as South Africa chased 232 with 9.1 overs remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A fifth ODI century of the year was another record for Brits, with no woman ever having hit so many in a calendar year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The right-hander has set herself a target of three tons in this World Cup, something captain Laura Wolvaardt hopes to see realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cShe is going amazing, I think she has scored [five] hundreds in her last 11 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is just phenomenal to have her in our changing room, and I\u2019m very glad she is doing that and continuing it into the World Cup. Hopefully, she can keep doing that for games to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While South Africa\u2019s campaign had lift-off after a disappointing defeat to England in their opener, New Zealand are still searching for their first points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suzie Bates notched her 350th appearance for the White Ferns, with Devine playing her 300th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The experience the skipper Devine has is why she is not panicking despite two defeats from two games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her side won the ICC Women\u2019s T20 World Cup 2024 despite entering the tournament on a run of 10 defeats, so she knows well how quickly things can change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have spoken about this even before we started this competition that we are going to have to win a lot of games,\u201d Devine said. \u201cAnd that is no different for us now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It probably puts a little bit more pressure on these remaining games for us, but I think this is a good thing for us, as we know exactly where we stand and what we will have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will reflect on this game, there were still some things that went well during both innings, but we know, in this competition, you can\u2019t just play half a game. There is still a very long way to go in this tournament.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand 231 all out in 47.5 overs (Sophie Devine 85, Brooke Halliday 45; Nonkululeko Mlaba 4\/40, Chloe Tryon 1\/24)<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa 234 for four in 40.5 overs (Tazmin Brits 101, Sune Luus 81 not out; Amelia Kerr 2\/62, Lea Tahuhu 1\/27)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Result: South Africa won by six wickets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tazmin Brits’ fifth ODI century of the year steered South Africa to a six-wicket win over New Zealand<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-4253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-cricket"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed.jpg",1932,828,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-300x129.jpg",300,129,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-768x329.jpg",640,274,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-1024x439.jpg",640,274,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-1536x658.jpg",1536,658,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed.jpg",1932,828,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Tazmin-Brits_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4255,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions\/4255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}