Fifteen Fours and Not Much Else: Miane Smit's Hundred Puts South Africa Women 4-0 Up in Bulawayo

Fifteen fours and one six. That is the shape of Miane Smit's hundred at Queens Sports Club on Thursday, and it is worth sitting with for a moment, because it is not how T20 centuries are usually built any more.

Smit made 102 from 59. Sixty of those runs came in fours, and she hit exactly one ball over the rope. In an era where the fastest route to three figures runs through the sightscreen, she got there by finding gaps at a ground where the square boundaries are inviting and the outfield is quick. South Africa Women made 205 for 4, their highest of the series, and won by 80 runs — the identical margin to the third T20I two days earlier.

They lead the five-match series 4-0 with one to play.

South Africa chose to bat, and the opening stand between Smit and Anneke Bosch was worth 74 in 8.3 overs. Bosch made 33 from 24 with seven fours — she and Smit together hit 22 boundaries and one six, which tells you most of what you need to know about how they played Zimbabwe's bowling.

Then Annerie Dercksen arrived and hit 33 from 16, and the second-wicket stand was worth 62 in five and a half overs. Kayla Reyneke added 18 from 12. Smit reached her hundred and was out in the nineteenth over for 102, having faced 59 of the 120 deliveries South Africa received.

The most revealing detail of South Africa's innings is who did not bat. Laura Wolvaardt, one of the best batters in the world, came in at the death and faced two deliveries. When a side's captain is a spectator in a 205-run innings, the top order has done its job entirely.

Chasing 206 at Queens Sports Club was never plausible, and Zimbabwe's innings had the shape of a side deciding, early and sensibly, to bat out twenty overs and take something from the day rather than be bowled out for 90.

They lost five wickets in total and scored 125. Beloved Biza's 32 from 33 and Josephine Nkomo's unbeaten 26 from 27 were the substance; Michelle Mavunga's 25 from 13, including the innings' only six, was the flourish at the end. Lorraine Pemhiwa took 19 balls over 8 and Kelis Ndhlovu 24 over 16 at the top, and by the halfway mark the required rate had gone past 14.

South Africa used eight bowlers, none of them for more than three overs. Caitlin Wyngaard was the pick with 2 for 15 from three, and Annerie Dercksen conceded 11 from her three after making 33 with the bat. That is the luxury of a 4-0 lead: you can spend a dead-rubber-adjacent evening giving overs to people who need them.

Queens Sports Club has produced a batting surface throughout this series, and this was the flattest of the four. There was almost no lateral movement, the bounce was even and comfortably in the slot, and the outfield was quick enough that Smit's fifteen fours were as much about timing as placement.

Zimbabwe's bowlers were not disgraced. Loryn Phiri conceded 29 from three, Nomvelo Sibanda 34 from four. What they lacked was a wicket-taking option in the powerplay — Smit and Bosch were allowed to bat eight and a half overs together, and on a pitch like this that is effectively the match.

We previewed the third T20I of this series but not the fourth, so there is no specific call to hold ourselves to here. What we wrote ahead of the third match — that the lean was towards South Africa, and that their batting depth, with “Wolvaardt at the top, Kapp in the middle, and consistent contributions throughout,” should be enough — has now been borne out twice in identical fashion, both times by exactly 80 runs. The detail we would not have predicted is that Wolvaardt would face two balls in a 205-run innings, and that Marizanne Kapp would spend the evening playing a WCPL final in Barbados. The depth ran deeper than the names we listed, and it was Miane Smit who made it count.

The fifth and final T20I is at Queens Sports Club on Saturday. South Africa have the series, and the question for them is squad-shaped: Wolvaardt has barely batted, and there are players in this group who could use twenty overs in the middle before the next assignment.

For Zimbabwe, the honest assessment is that they have been outclassed but not embarrassed — 125 for 5 chasing 206 is a different kind of defeat from being rolled over, and Biza, Nkomo and Mavunga all showed something. The problem across four matches has been the powerplay with the ball. Until they find someone who can take a wicket inside the first six overs, sides of South Africa's quality will simply bat for twenty overs and set 200.