5.55pm Right, then that's it from Manchester today, with Scotland registering a historic first World Cup win and Australia sending an early warning to all other contenders. But, there is more World Cup action to come, with defending champions New Zealand beginning their campaign against West Indies. For this game, it's time to say goodbye. This is Abhimanyu, signing off on behalf of Sudarshanan, Thilak and Ranjith.
Sophie Molineux: "We were in trouble early but the way the girls bounced back and how we bowled, really pleased. We've got a top order and middle order that can play all around the ground and take the game on. Great to see the girls play with that freedom. She's amazing, Pheebs. Extremely skillful but she just has that confidence and her game is going through the roof. [On her bowling changes] I get a lot of help with that. We have the right people at the right places. Pretty spin friendly wicket."
Laura Wolvaardt: "Tough day today. I thought restricting them to that score wasn't bad. Disappointing day, but they bowled really well. Maybe their score was a little bit above par, but we backed ourselves. Awesome to have [Kapp and Ismail] back. Been a long time since we bowled like that in the powerplay so it was nice to see, and with a couple of other bowlers stepping up. It was hard to get going. Bit of a frustrating innings. Got stuck at the non-striker's end at the start and then they bowled well to me later on. [On the batting order] I think it's nice to stack our lineup like that and have a little bit of power early. I think Nadine batted well.[Expecting SA to fight back?] Definitely. Long way to go and we'll put this game behind us."
The POTM, Georgia Wareham: "[On her batting] Definitely with our batting lineup you can play with a lot of confidence and freedom knowing the batting to come. Thought Pheebs was awesome today. Depending on the day, all of us are pretty versatile and it's just about communicating. Nice to be part of that group. Good bowling unit. Between Ash and myself, we try and get ourselves in the hotspots in the deep. [On Molineux] Soph's been awesome, instilling a lot of freedom within the group and making the group believe we are a good team and can take on this tournament and that's pretty awesome."
Azhagee : "With this performance, SA have left themselves nothing short of a Mount Everest to climb for the rest of their WT20 campaign ! "
5.40pm Well, if there was any doubt that Australia are the powerhouses in this tournament, they have shed those with a statement win to begin their 2026 T20 World Cup campaign! They came back from setbacks with the bat to post a commendable total and then their bowlers did a great job to never let South Africa's batters get going in the chase. The pressure eventually was too much on the batters, and it led to a collapse, helping Australia start off with a big win that will also give a hefty boost to their net run rate. Sophie Molineux, captaining Australia for the first time in a T20 World Cup match, did extremely well to remove Sune Luus in the first over and then Laura Wolvaardt later in the innings. Wareham picked up three, while King got two as well.
N Mlaba c Gardner b Wareham 0 (1m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0
CL Tryon c King b Wareham 9 (25m 13b 0x4 0x6) SR: 69.23
Jez: "Thanks for the great coverage! The TV broadcast is unwatchable with thumping music between every delivery."
