From collapse to class: SA flex their muscle to restore WC credentials

How do you recover from 69 all out?

If you're Marizanne Kapp, you do that by hitting Suzie Bates on the pads first ball in her 350th international, and having her out lbw in the match where you become the most capped of your country's women. If you're Nonkululeko Mlaba, you do that by taking the wicket that sparks an opposition collapse of 7 for 44, and finishing with your career's second four-for. If you're Laura Wolvaardt, you do that by sticking your right arm out, and snatching the ball from the sky to claim what could be the catch of the tournament. If you're Sune Luus, you do that by sharing in South Africa's highest partnership at a World Cup, with your team's most in-form batter Tazmin Brits.

Oh, and if you're actually Brits? By becoming the only women's player to score five ODI hundreds in a calendar year, and anchoring a successful chase of 232.

Good enough? We'd say so.

South Africa showed up in their second World Cup match with a strong all-round display that restored their tournament credentials, and left New Zealand with zero points from two games. But it's the manner in which they did it which will please them most after their abject display in the opener against England. Nineteen wides aside, South Africa barely put a foot wrong as they squeezed New Zealand in the first half of their innings, and then struck big blows in the second to limit them to a modest total. Still, given the inexplicably poor batting performance South Africa put on three days ago, 232 was a long way away.

When Wolvaardt was dismissed in the third over, it was even longer. What South Africa needed was a player with form, confidence and belief. Enter Brits.

Before this match, Brits had already scored four hundreds this year, including three back-to-back-to-back against West Indies and Pakistan. Her latest was a career-best 171* in Lahore. So being bowled for 5 by Linsey Smith against England in South Africa's World Cup opener was so galling to her that it made her lose her appetite.

"It didn't sit well with me. I was actually very naar (nauseous), and I didn't even want to eat that night, and I overthought the process completely," Brits, who smashed 101 off 89 balls against New Zealand, said after the game. "We put that in the past as quickly as possible, and said we've got to move on to the next game."

Brits joked that the South African pasty koeksister - it is an essentially fried dough soaked in syrup with or without a desiccated coconut covering - is what led to her form this year, but she wouldn't have found any of that in Indore. Instead, she had to feast on a new scoring area, which has only opened up for her in the last year.

Brits has gone from being a predominantly leg-side player to understanding how to access the off side too. Against New Zealand, she scored more than two-thirds of her runs - 68 - on the off side, including 27 through or over mid-off. In total, she scored 40 runs in the V down the ground. Apart from taking advantage of width, she also created it by making room for himself, and used her feet well throughout her innings.

"I've just tried to expand my shot selection a bit more, and I've been working very, very hard on that," she said.

Brits' ability to strike powerfully and score quickly also meant this hundred, off 87 balls, was her fastest, and South Africa's fourth-fastest. It also launched her into the record books. Brits now has 749 runs this year, the second-most by a South Africa batter in a calendar year after Wolvaardt's 882 in 2022. At the rate she is going, Brits could surpass Wolvaardt's record during this World Cup itself. She also has more centuries in 41 ODI innings than anyone else at the same stage in their career, surpassing Meg Lanning, whose first seven hundreds came in 44 innings.

Happily, she also has a distinct reason to remember this century as different from all the others. Not only is it her first at a World Cup - and South Africa's third overall - but it also came with a special celebration: the archer.

"I always do a ballerina for my dad, so I did that at 50 and then I actually put it out to the fans," she said. "There were actually two 13-year-old girls that sent me the archer celebration. So I did it for them."

While Brits will grab the headlines, some praise must also be reserved for Luus, who has better numbers at No. 4, where she averages 33.44 and has scored only ODI hundred, than at No. 3. But against New Zealand, Luus played an innings that could make the role her own. Her unbeaten 83 was the perfect foil to Brits, especially as she employed a more conservative approach early on. That gave Brits the freedom to hit out. Between them, they could, and arguably should, even have got South Africa to the target quicker.

Though South Africa reached the target inside 41 overs, which has helped their net run rate, it remains in negative territory, and they may look at overs 30 to 40, where they scored 46 runs, as a handbrake. In a tournament where the weather could still play a significant part and five or six teams could end up fighting over one or two semi-final spots, South Africa don't want to be too far behind.

They have their first points, though, and after the embarrassment of 69 all out, that's a start. The next step is another day of travel to play the hosts, India, who are unbeaten, in Vizag, in what could be an important clash in determining the semi-finalists.