da bet7： New Zealand’s world record lasts for a matter of hours on extraordinary day at Taunton
da luck： Andrew Miller20-Jun-20181:48
‘I just felt like it was my day’ – Beaumont
England 250 for 3 (Beaumont 116, Wyatt 56) beat South Africa 129 for 6 (van Niekerk 72) by 121 runs
ScorecardIt’s been a week of scarcely credible run-scoring feats – starting with New Zealand women’s twin demolition of Ireland (491 team runs in one innings, 232 individual runs for Amelia Kerr in another) and continuing on Tuesday with England’s men’s ODI-record total of 481 for 6 against Australia at Trent Bridge.But on a ludicrous day of run-feasting at Taunton, England’s women might just have taken the biscuit. A matter of hours after watching New Zealand add the highest T20 innings total to their records-chest, with a Suzie Bates-inspired total of 216 for 1, Tammy Beaumont and her team-mates marched out to the middle to obliterate that mark from the annals.Twenty overs after winning the toss against the same hapless South African opposition, England had amassed an extraordinary 250 for 3. Their effort was powered by a 47-ball century from Beaumont – her third for England in as many innings after her ODI-series-sealing knocks last week. With five overs still to come, she had the individual record at her mercy as well, when she miscued a return catch to Stacy Lackay to depart for 116 from 52.At the top of Beaumont’s innings, Danni Wyatt had offered a high-octane supporting role with 56 from 36 balls in an opening stand of 147 in 13.1 overs, whereupon Nat Sciver, with 33 from 15 and Katherine Brunt, 42 not out from 16, applied the finishing touches with a murderous series of blows.It was brutal, compelling, and – for South Africa – utterly soul-destroying, as they limped away from the field having conceded 466 runs in the space of 40 overs across two (non)-contests. Even Beaumont, whose 116 from 52 balls had contained four of England’s nine sixes and 18 of their 33 fours, later admitted some sympathy for a side who had drawn the short straw in having to play twice in one day in this fledgling round-robin competition.”We saw the Kiwi girls broke [the record] this morning,” Beaumont told Sky Sports. “Robbo [Mark Robinson] told us in the pre-match chat not to try and break it, but I think a few of the girls got a bit of a challenge on. It’s an incredible wicket, and we feel a bit sorry for the South Africa girls having to go two in two, but that’s the way it goes in this T20 series and we’ve all got one of those.”On this evidence, England will be itching not only for the rematch against South Africa – on this same ground on Saturday – but for their first encounter with the New Zealand big guns later that same day.Doubtless encouraged by the ruthlessness shown by Bates and Sophie Devine in their morning stand of 182, England’s ball-striking was clean and awesome from the get-go – and to think they had been suffering from power failure only a couple of years ago.Wyatt’s cover drive was purring from the very outset of her innings, while Beaumont’s ferocity in the arc from square leg to long-on was a sight to behold. There was finesse at times too, but it was scarcely required as the innings progressed and South Africa’s morale deserted them.Their captain, Dane van Niekerk, had given her team a ferocious talking-to in the break between matches, but it proved fruitless as England rattled along to their first hundred in just 53 balls – New Zealand, by contrast, had taken 66 earlier in the day.South Africa’s woes had been summed up by two polarised moments in the field – a missed stumping from Lizelle Lee which cannoned off her knee for byes, and a brilliant catch in the deep from Sune Luus to intercept another Beaumont smear over long-on, which she was forced to relinquish as her momentum dragged her over the rope.England, in reply, had one or two moments to forget in the field – not least Jenny Gunn, who dropped a sitter off Laura Wolvaardt in Brunt’s first over (she made amends moments later), then clung onto a one-handed screamer at long-on off van Niekerk, only to spill the simplest of relay lobs as she too was forced to take a second bite of the cherry with the boundary rope looming.The match was over as a contest almost before the second innings began, but for the second match running, van Niekerk provided her team with some cheer, as she clubbed her second defiant fifty of the day, this time off 40 balls with seven fours and a six. She finished on 72 from 51, as Anya Shrubsole pulled off a blinder, diving to her right at mid-off to intercept a flat drive.That catch, however, was arguably less impressive than Shrubsole’s final bowling figures. On a pitch on which every other bowler had come across as cannon fodder, not least Mackay and Masabata Klaas, both of whom conceded a record 59 runs in their spells, Shrubsole wheeled through her four overs for a cost of just eight runs.
