All-round Sophie Devine stars in New Zealand's breezy win

Sophie Devine's all-round performance (38-ball 55* & 2/21) helped New Zealand clinch a comfortable 6-wicket win in the third T20I, at the Eden Park in Auckland, on Friday. Chasing 150 for a win, the hosts overhauled the target with 8 balls to spare and took a 2-1 lead.

Electing to bat, South Africa lost both their openers - Tazmin Brits and Sune - early, cleaned up by New Zealand's new-ball pair of Rosemary Mair and Jess Kerr respectively. Laura Wolvaardt and Annerie Dercksen controlled the innings briefly with a 51-run stand, with the latter even cracking sixes off Lea Tahuhu and Devine, but the scoring rate didn't quite soar.

Devine and Suzie Bates struck twice through the middle overs, and Wolvaardt was run out, ensuring South Africa's innings never quite got the required momentum. Kayla Reyneke provided the late flourish, with a breezy 20-ball 34, which included three sixes, to power the visitors to a competitive total of 149 for 7.

In response, South Africa's new-ball pair struck early but couldn't quite push New Zealand on the backfoot. Amelia Kerr combined with Isabella Gaze and Devine to steady the innings in the first half. South Africa struck twice in quick succession to seize the momentum briefly - with Amelia getting trapped legbefore and Brooke Halliday getting run out to reduce the hosts to 68 for 4 by the end of the 10th over.

That was, however, the last of the successes for South Africa on the day. Devine combined with Maddy Green to wipe out the remaining runs - adding 84 runs off only 52 balls - to help New Zealand over the line. The big surge came in the 17th over with Green carting Hlubi for a six and two boundaries, only a few deliveries after Devine brought up her half-century. With five runs needed off the last eight balls, the game could have gone deeper, but Nadine de Klerk's wide was followed by a no-ball which raced away to the boundary.

Brief Scores: South Africa 149/7 in 20 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 37, Kayla Reyneke 34*; Suzie Bates 2-10, Sophie Devine 2-21) lost to New Zealand 152/4 in 18.4 overs (Sophie Devine 55*, Amelia Kerr 30; Annerie Dercksen 1-17) by 6 wickets