Kiwis clinch women's series, men go to a decider

At least we only have to continue to take seriously one of South Africa's two T20I series in New Zealand. In the second game at the Cake Tin in Wellington on Sunday, the visitors were wobbly with the bat, wanting in the field, and wonderful with the ball - which was enough to clinch victory by 19 runs.

That keeps the men's rubber alive going into the fifth and last match at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Wednesday. But New Zealand's six-wicket win with nine deliveries unspent in the first game decided the honours in the women's rubber and rendered Wednesday's game undeserving of attention.

South Africa's 164/5, punctuated by Connor Esterhuizen's 57 off 36, and the 81 he shared off 56 with Tony de Zorzi, didn't seem big enough to hold the home side's batters. Until it was: despite three dropped catches, Gerald Coetzee's 3/31, Prenelan Subrayen's 2/13 and Keshav Maharaj's 2/22 helped dispatch New Zealand for 145 in 18.5.

In the earlier contest, Jess Kerr's career-best 3/16 and Sophie Devine's 34-ball 64 topped Annerie Derksen's 55 not out off 32. That added up to a six-wicket win with nine deliveries unspent for the Kiwis, and with it the honours in the five-match rubber. Wednesday's game is thus irrelevant.

The problem, for the South Africans, is that the men's series didn't mean much from the outset and still doesn't. It directly follows the T20 World Cup, and is thus as far as possible from the next pertinent event in the format. By the time the T20 World Cup rolls around in Australia and New Zealand in October and November 2028, the current series will be long forgotten.

If anything, it is allowing the South Africans to explore their depth. Of the squad from which the XI that crashed and burned in an embarrassing semifinal against the Kiwis at Eden Gardens on March 4 was drawn, only Maharaj, Linde and Jason Smith are in New Zealand. The visitors took just 160 caps into the series, compared to the home side's 649.

Esterhuizen, for instance, came to New Zealand unblooded in senior international cricket. He's played all four games, scoring an unbeaten 45 off 48 in the first game in Mount Maunganui last Sunday before getting out for eight and 15 in Hamilton and Auckland. His latest effort, his first half-century at this level, understandably put him in a good mood.

"I've loved every second of my first tour with the Proteas," Esterhuizen told a press conference. "The lesson I'd take is how to deal with the pressure and the scrutiny. I don't think anyone masters that, but I think the more you do it the more accustomed you become to it.

"That's the main message [Shukri Conrad] gave us before the tour, especially us newcomers. That everything's looked at through a microscope."

It's helped Esterhuizen settle in that his captain, Maharaj, is also in charge of their shared SA20 side, Pretoria Capitals.

"I love having Kesh as my captain," Esterhuizen said. "Just for the compassion and the kindness, but also the excellence he drives from the young guys."

Matters are not nearly as chipper on the female side of the fence. Bar the absence, through illness and injury, of power couple Marizanne Kapp and Dane van Niekerk - who have played 211 T20Is between them - this is South Africa's full-strength side. Their form is a worry considering the start of the T20 World Cup in England and Wales is a mere 83 days away.

The women's catching was even shakier than the men's. They spilled four chances, one offered by Devine before she had scored a run. And while their batting was good enough to get them to a competitive 159/6, they lacked threat and penetration with the ball and couldn't stop their opponents from reaching 160/4 in 18.3.

"I thought we were just above par with the bat," Derksen told a press conference. "With the ball and in the field we were disappointing. We missed our lines and lengths, and if you drop the amount of catches we did it's difficult to win a game of cricket.

"We created a lot of chances. We just didn't take them."

Sadly for Derksen and her teammates it is now too late to do so. Esterhuizen and his cohorts, however, will want to do so one more time.