Australia 277 for 9 (Mooney 82*, Healy 60, McGrath 44, Klaas 4-56) won South Africa 127 (Luus 34, King 4-26, Garth 3-14, McGrath 3-23) by 110 runs (DLS method)
Rain halted South Africa’s chase after 14 overs and for a while it looked like it might not budge to allow the game to finish, but it continued as a 31-over contest. South Africa immediately needed ten overs, which proved to be far beyond them and wickets fell in a rush, including three in an over for King, who was minutes away from a hat-trick.
South Africa had made an encouraging start after Healy won another toss. Phoebe Litchfield’s unbeaten run continued when she found cover, and after seven overs, Australia were 21 for 1 with Kapp producing an opening spell of 4-2-5-0.
Mooney, who took 13 balls to get out of the mark, and McGrath built another important position, although progress was often hard work. McGrath broke the deadlock with five consecutive boundaries from Ayanda Hlubi, but was beaten by one past Chloe Tryon in the next over. Gardner was then pinned lbw by Kapp to leave Australia 187 for 5 in the 37th over.
Mooney brought up her fifty off 71 balls and would go on to add 32 off her next 20 deliveries as Australia accelerated in the final ten overs. A string of superb catches – one by Wolvaardt at cover and another by Nadine de Klerk in the next over – hurt Australia’s ambitions a bit, but their total was given a boost when 13 runs essentially came from one delivery. King took a huge hit off Klaas for a six (demolishing her stumps in the process) and then sent the free hit as well.
Wolvaardt failed to make it into the ODIs and soon got past Garth at first slip. At the other end, Darcy Brown, who replaced a rested Megan Shute, bowled with good pace and hit the Brits with a nasty whack on the wrist.
The Brits battled through the pain before finding deep middle and South Africa’s best hope then vanished when Kapp, who had been so inspirational in the second game, helped McGrath get the hands of a deep backward square leg.