England secured their second white-ball series win in their tour of South Africa, and they will now shift their focus to the one-off Test match set to begin on Sunday.

White-ball series clean sweep

The One Day International (ODI) series was tied at 1-1 heading into the decider at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom, and both teams had a lot on the line with South Africa on the brink of breaking their duck in bilateral series’ against the former world champions.

England, on the other hand, had a fairly decent comeback from their disappointing showing at the T20 World Cup, following their 3-0 series whitewash in the T20 series.

They had to show a lot of character to come back from 1-0 down in the ODIs to secure yet another limited-overs series clean sweep against the Proteas, which bodes them well for a tougher Ashes series coming up in January.

Chasing a revised Duckworth-Lewis target of 152 runs in just 23 overs of the rain-affected final ODI. England had already set sail into stormy waters, and they were made to pay early on as dangerous all-rounder Marizanne Kapp picked up three quick wickets to leave them in early trouble at 25/3.

Opener Tamsin Beaumont kept one end intact, and her innings of 65 off 46 balls steered them home comfortably with 24 balls to spare to complete a comeback 2-1 series win.

The 33-year-old told Sportboom.com that the toss played a huge role in their win as they had expected a bit of weather later on in the day.

She added that their task was made even more difficult by facing strike bowler Kapp with the new ball after the pitch had been under covers throughout the rain delay.

“It's always tough facing someone like Marizanne; the ball skidded on a little bit, and there was also a little bit of swing around, but in white ball cricket it doesn’t last that long.”

“The breeze helped at one end; being able to attack and get it up to the breeze was tough to start, but it didn't last too long, thankfully.”

“Heather (Knight) mentioned at the toss that there would be a bit of weather around, so that is why we wanted to chase, and we back ourselves to chase in both the T20 and ODI cricket.”

“We all had a guess in the changeroom of what the target was going to be, and no one thought that it was going to be as much as a 152.”

“But we were very comfortable knowing we had to get seven runs per over for a long period, especially with the batting lineup we have. We were pretty happy, and we just got on with it really.”

The tough South African challenge

South Africa was expected to mount a bit more of a challenge in either of the two series’, but it wasn't the case. Beaumont added that, even though they won convincingly in the end, they had to battle hard to secure their victory.

“South Africa is always a good challenge against us; I think both teams match up really well together. They obviously have a couple of strong players with the likes of (Laura) Wolvaardt and Kapp; they always play well against us for some reason.”

“But I think it's always good to test yourselves, particularly going 1-0 down over at Kimberley; we weren't overly happy with how we batted there, and we wanted to put that right, and we have managed to do that in the last two games.”

“I'm just really glad that today we got to have a decider and not have a drawn series because of a washout.”

The turning point

Beaumont was a part of two key match-winning partnerships of 90 runs with Amy Jones and added a further 38 runs with Danni Wyatt-Hodge. 

“The two partnerships between myself and Dani Wyatt and me and Amy were the key. I feel we have the most brilliant attacking middle order; even if the asking rate got to nine or ten an over, we had a chance.”

“It was just about making sure we didn’t lose too many wickets too early, but batting with Amy is brilliant. I think we have such different striking zones and scoring shots, and we complement each other really well.”

“She’s incredibly calm under pressure, and she just lets me chat because I'm chatty, so she just puts up with me talking a bit too much, and she just takes it all in. She’s just so calm and great to bat with.”