New Zealand Women vs South Africa Women, 7th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Quite a commendable turnaround from South Africa Women! Who would have expected such a dominant performance after that embarrassing defeat to England just a few days ago? New Zealand, on the other hand, have now suffered back-to-back losses, and their net run rate has taken a serious hit. They’ll need to pull up their socks and bounce back strongly against other opponents as the tournament progresses. They’re certainly a much better side than what they showed tonight. That’s all from our side for now. Do join us again tomorrow for the live coverage of another exciting WWC encounter, as England Women lock horns with Bangladesh Women. Goodbye for now!

Laura Wolvaardt | South Africa captain: Such an amazing turnaround. I think this is what we knew that we were capable of in that first game. So we're really happy that we could put that behind us and bounced back today. (On restricting New Zealand to 231) We had an amazing last 15 (overs), we just bowled really well in that phase. Mlaba came back for her second spell and was amazing. Our death plans were really good. (On her outstanding catch to dismiss Lea Tahuhu) Just lucky and stuff. Fielding is something that we've been talking about a lot as a group. I'm glad to see that today was one of our better performances on quite a big outfield. So it was awesome. (On Brits) She's going amazing. I think she's scored 600 in the last 7 games or something. It's just phenomenal to have her in our changing room. Very glad that she's doing that and continuing it in the World Cup. Hopefully she can keep doing it for many games to come. Enjoy tonight but then like we forgot about the first game, we need to forget about this as well. Because cricket starts at zero every time. And that's a very big game for us as well. Starting the tournament with three crucial games, so we'll need to be fully switched on. Quite a big turnaround as well. New venue too. So we'll definitely need to do our prep and come back hard.

Sophie Devine | NZ captain: I think even though it was a different pitch to the first game, I still thought it was a 270-280 wicket. I thought we got ourselves into a position to launch, and then we just continually lost wickets. It’s hard to really have a crack at the back end when you’re doing that. So, look, credit has to go to South Africa. The way they batted at the top there, they negated what we threw down at them. Disappointing for us today. I think we’d spoken about it before we even started this competition, that you’re going to have to win a lot of games, and that’s no different for us now. It probably puts a little bit more pressure on these remaining games, but I think that’s a good thing. We know exactly where we stand and what we have to do. We’ll go and reflect on this game. There were still some things that went well in both innings, but we know in this competition you can’t just play half a game. So, disappointing, but there’s still a long way to go in this tournament. I would enjoy it a bit more if we’d won! But yeah, I’ll certainly sit down with a good mate, Batesy (Suzie Bates) later today and reflect on what’s been a pretty long career. I am really grateful and humbled to have had the opportunity to pull on this shirt 300 times. It’s certainly not lost on me every time I do. I just want to give my absolute best to this group and to the people back home as well.

Tazmin Brits | Player of the Match: It feels great. I'm glad that we could pull this one through. We definitely needed it after the first game. (On becoming the fastest woman to hit 7 ODI centuries surpassing Meg Lanning) Funny enough, I'm not one for records, but when you mention Meg Lanning, I'm glad I'm above that one. As long as we are winning the games, then I'm all good. (Key to success) I don't actually know, I'm just backing myself a bit more. I'm trying to be as positive as I can. We actually had a lot of batting camps, I think that definitely helped. I'm trying to expand my batting a bit more and not to be one-dimension. (Today's game-plan) I just said I'm going to be as positive as possible, we needed this win, just get out, middle of all the balls. It's actually funny, it was a new bat. I haven't used it once. I think that's going to be the lucky bat from now on. (On her bow and arrow celebration) Sinalo actually interviewed us and asked what celebrations next and I actually put it out to the fans. I said, "give me your celebrations, because the 50 will only remain for my dad." And then I had these two young girls, they're 13 years old. One stays in Australia, one stays in South Africa. But they come from South Africa and they asked me to do their celebration. So, yeah, that celebration was for them.

NZ-W won 11 of the 13 head-to-head ODIs against SA-W between 1999 (when they first played them) and 2017. SA-W have won seven out of eight thereafter (including today).

Spin bowling today
SA-W: 5/96 in 18 overs, ER: 5.33
NZ-W: 2/93 in 14.5 overs, ER: 6.26
39% of the deliveries bowled by SA-W spinners were pitched full (<4m) and they returned 3/33 at an ER of 4.71 while doing so. NZ-W spinners hit that length on 29.2% of the deliveries they bowled, and returned 1/42 at an ER of 10.08.

Sune Luus in ODIs since 2024
2024: 11 innings, 171 runs at 15.54, SR: 60.85
2025: 10 innings, 296 runs at 37, SR: 79.35

100-plus stands vs SA-W vs NZ-W in ODIs (any wicket)
163 - Lizelle Lee & Laura Wolvaardt, Auckland, 2020
159 - Tazmin Brits & Sune Luus, Indore, 2025
124 - Nadine de Klerk, Chloe Tryon, Potchefstroom, 2023
116* - Marizanne Kapp, Laura Wolvaardt, Pietermaritzburg, 2023
SA-W have had 16 50-plus partnerships vs NZ-W in ODIs, 12 of them in run-chases including the above four century stands.

21:33 Local Time, 16:03 GMT, 21:33 IST: That’s a commanding victory for South Africa Women, who have chased down the target well inside 41 overs! What a turnaround this has been after their batting collapse against England, where they were bowled out for 69. Today, they looked like a completely different side. New Zealand seemed in control at 195/4, but the South African bowlers turned the game on its head from there, tightening the screws and triggering a collapse that saw the White Ferns fold for 231. Nonkululeko Mlaba was the star with the ball, delivering a brilliant spell of 4/40 to suffocate the opposition towards the later stages. In reply, South Africa’s openers came out firing, setting the tone with a flurry of boundaries. Laura Wolvaardt was trapped lbw by Jess Kerr, but the partnership between Tazmin Brits and Sune Luus sealed the deal. Brits played with intent, finding the fence regularly, while Luus held the fort with a calm and composed innings. South Africa lost a few wickets towards the end, but they always had the situation under control. Brits’ brilliant century capped off a perfect day for South Africa as they have bounced back in style after that hammering against England. Stay around for the presentations..