England announced themselves at the World Cup with a statement performance in the field, dismissing South Africa for their lowest score against England, their third lowes tscore overall. They need just 70 runs to secure a win in their opening match of the tournament.

Linsey Smith playing in her first ODI World Cup game and opening the bowling, became the only bowler to dismiss all three of Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp in the same ODI innings. At the other end, Lauren Bell and Nat Sciver Brunt bowled good length to pluck three more wickets. At 38 for 6, with the first ball after the powerplay, South Africa could only hope to crawl to respectability and they didn’t get there. They were bowled out in 20.4 overs.

In an inexplicably inept batting performance, South Africa’s line-up fell apart in conditions which neither seamed nor spun significantly. Their movement at the crease was all but absent, shot selection was poor and there will be questions asked over their selection. Annerie Dercksen, who scored her maiden ODI ton in Sri Lanka earlier this year, was left out as South Africa opted for all their allrounders. None delivered with the bat, with only Sinalo Jafta, promoted to No.6, reaching double figures.

South Africa could hardly have imagined how quickly things would unravel after Wolvaardt got proceedings underway with a square drive, and Brits carved Bell through point in an opening over that cost nine runs. Smith struck with her second ball when Wolvaardt played across the line and popped up a leading edge to give her a simple return catch. The first ball of Smith’s next over drifted into Brits from around the wicket and snuck through the bat-pad gap to bowl her.

With both openers’ dismissed, Sune Luus at No.3 had a big job on her hands but fell to a Bell inswinger that curled in to take out offstump. Three balls later, Kapp was also done by drift as Smith got the ball to squeeze past her inside edge and onto middle stump. All four – Wolvaardt, Brits, Luus and Kapp – will need to relook at their footwork going forward.

Amid the collapse, there were fleeting moments of quality from South Africa’s batters. Jafta drove Bell through cover point for her first boundary and Anneke Bosch nailed a cover drive but such moments were few and far between.

Jafta should have been out on 8 when she advanced down the track in an attempt to drive Smith and missed. Amy Jones could not collect quickly enough and fluffed the stumping. That was the only blip in an otherwise flawless England performance.

Sciver-Brunt brought herself on in the eight over and had success with her first ball. Bosch walked across her stumps and was hit on the knee roll in front of middle and leg stump. She didn’t review what was a correct lbw decision. Then Sciver-Brunt also struck with the first ball of her next over. Chloe Tryon tried to flick her onto the leg side but got a leading edge and was caught by Alice Capsey at mid-on.

Jafta entered double figures when she guided Sophie Ecclestone to third but she didn’t have any support. Nadine de Klerk edged Ecclestone to Heather Knight at slip and Masabata Klaas played for turn against a Charlie Dean ball that held its line and was bowled. Jafta herself fell when she tried to hit Ecclestone back over her head but missed and was bowled. Dean finished things off when she bowled Nonkululekho Mlaba who tried to slog but missed.

Brief scores:
South Africa Women 69 in 20.4 overs  (Sinalo Jafta 22, Linsey Smith 3-07, Nat Sciver-Brunt 2-05, Sophie Ecclestone  2-19, Charlie Dean 2-14 ) vs England Women

[Cricinfo]