England Women win ODI series in South Africa

England’s 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup qualification campaign is on track following a 2-1 One-Day International (ODI) series victory against South Africa in the final pairing of round four in the ICC Women’s Championship.

Vice-captain Heather Knight's 67 not out saw the tourists reach the victory target with 6.1 overs to spare in Johannesburg.

Kent's Charlotte Edwards skippered the side and scored 29. County colleagues Lydia Greenway and Tammy Beaumont did not play.

With two points awarded for a win and none for a loss, the 2-1 series win means that England are now tied on 13 points with South Africa in the ICC Women’s Championship table, behind leaders Australia (20 points), West Indies (16) and New Zealand (14).

Speaking after the match, Charlotte Edwards, said:“The ICC Women’s Championship brings context and consequence to every ODI series that we now play, which is great for the standard and development of women’s international cricket.

"We are obviously disappointed not to have secured the full six points available for this series, but to come away with four points against a strong South African side away from home is still a pleasing result for us.

“The last three matches have ebbed and flowed for us performance-wise. We have shown glimpses of what we are capable of with both bat and ball, but to be competitive with the best teams in the world we still need to be more consistent.

"We are starting to show signs of the positive, proactive and fearless cricket that we want to play, and I hope we can take this into the T20I series starting in Paarl on Thursday, and then the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in India next month.”

England women will play their three remaining rounds of the ICC Women’s Championship over the next eight months, hosting Pakistan in June and July, and then travelling to the West Indies and Sri Lanka before Christmas in order to complete their 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup qualification campaign.

England and South Africa now travel to Cape Town to play back-to-back T20 Internationals (T20I) on 18and 19February at Boland Park and Newlands Cricket Ground, before finishing the tour with the third and final T20I at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on 21February.

The Kent trio in the ODI squad will be joined by teen seamer Tash Farrant in the T20 series, who replaces injured bowler Katherine Brunt.

The matches on 19and 21February at Newlands and the Wanderers will be played as double-headers with the men’s T20Is between South Africa and England.