South Africa bounced back from the defeat in the fourth T20I with an 11-run win in the fifth and final game to square the rain-hit series 1-1 in Benoni on Sunday. Tazmin Brits and Sune Luus did most of the work with the bat, but it was the bowlers who won South Africa the game, Masabata Klaas and Nadine de Klerk picking up three wickets apiece to stop New Zealand 11 short in a moderate chase.

Asked to bat, captain Laura Wolvaardt and Brits put on a quick 36-run stand at the top, Wolvaardt doing the bulk of the scoring before being dismissed for a 20-ball 24 in the fifth over by Lea Tahuhu. Anneke Bosch joined Brits, and the two took South Africa to a strong 75 for 1 at the halfway mark, but the two batters were dismissed within three overs of each other, and South Africa were 115 for 3 in 15.1 overs, with the scoring rate having slowed down.

Luus contributed an unbeaten 36 in 23 balls, and despite two-wicket hauls from Tahuhu and Molly Penfold, South Africa got to a competitive 155.

South Africa needed early wickets, and Klaas got one for them when she got rid of Kate Anderson for 11 in the third over. But Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr took control of the game from that point and stitched together a stand of 97 runs for the second wicket. Unfortunately for New Zealand, the pace of scoring wasn’t fantastic, and when Bates was dismissed for 45 in 42 in the 16th over, by de Klerk, New Zealand still needed 39 to win. Kerr’s dismissal, to Klaas, two overs later made things worse.

None of the remaining New Zealand batters got into double figures as Klaas, the Player of the Match, and de Klerk did all the damage and South Africa finished in front.

South Africa had earlier won the three-match ODI series 2-1.