Tazmin Brits take South Africa to 189 with career-best 81 in 1st T20I against India

The South African Women’s cricket team is touring India for a multi-format series. India clinched the three-match ODI series 3-0 in Bengaluru and followed it with a 10-wicket victory in the one-off Test match in Chennai. In the inaugural match of the three-match T20I series at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Tazmin Brits registered her highest T20I score, completing 2000 international runs in the process.

Tazmin debuted against Bangladesh at Bloemfontein on May 19, 2018. Since then, she has featured in 49 innings and scored 1248 T20I runs, with her previous best being 78 runs, which came against Pakistan in 2023. Today, she started slowly but accelerated towards the end, finishing with 81 runs, marking her personal best T20I score.

“It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish!”

Tazmin Brits scored her highest individual T20I score tonight. 🔥 #CricketTwitter #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/HhE0wtr0Ev

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) July 5, 2024

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to field first. Opener Tazmin Brits began her innings cautiously but gradually picked up the pace. She made her first run on the 9th ball and scored a 40-ball fifty. Tazmin ended with her highest-ever T20I score of 81 runs off 56 balls before being dismissed by Pooja Vastrakar at the end of the innings, which concluded South Africa’s innings at 189/4. Tazmin built several significant partnerships, including a 50-run opening stand with skipper Laura Wolvaardt and a 96-run partnership with Marizanne Kapp. She hit 10 boundaries and three maximums, maintaining a strike rate of 144.4.

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Though she was not included in the one-off test, Tazmin scored a total of 61 runs in the three ODIs, with her best being 38 runs in the 3rd ODI, where she faced an unfortunate run-out. In the T20Is, Tazmin scored her 10th half-century in T20Is, making it the third most fifties by a South African batter. Her innings of 81 runs also recorded the second-highest score by a South African batter against India.