Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], October 7 (ANI): South Africa batter Tazmin Brits, who broke the record for most ODI centuries in a calendar year by a women's cricketer during the ICC Women's World Cup clash against New Zealand, said that she feels glad to have overtaken Australia great Meg Lanning in the record books and has tried to 'expand her batting'

It was a historic night for Brits at Indore as not only her 89-ball 101, with 15 fours and a six, helped South Africa make a comeback from 69 all out against England to chase down 232 against New Zealand, but she also notched her fifth ODI ton this year, becoming the first women's cricketer to do so. In doing so, she hit her seventh ODI century in just 41 innings, bettering the legendary Meg Lanning as the fastest to achieve that feat, as per ICC.

Brits, who could not attain an average of above 33 in her first four years as an ODI cricketer, has been having a stunner of a 2025 so far with the bat, having made 749 runs in 11 innings at an average of 83.22, with a strike rate of 96.14, including five centuries and a fifty, with a best score of 171*. This is her fourth ODI ton in the past five innings, and her career ODI tons (seven) are way more than fifties, just two of them.

'Funnily enough, I am not one for records, but when you mention Meg Lanning, I am glad I am above that one,' she said. 'But as long as we are winning games, I am all good,' she added as quoted by ICC.

'I have been backing myself a bit more. I am trying to be as positive as I can. We actually had a lot of batting camps, I think that definitely helped me a lot. I have tried to expand my batting a bit more and not be too one-dimensional,' Brits said.

'When I went out there, I just said I am going to be as positive as possible, as we needed this win. It is actually funny, it was a new bat, I have not used it once, and I think that is going to be a lucky bat from now on,' she admitted about the willow which helped her make history.

Nonkululeko Mlaba had led the bowling efforts for South Africa with her second four-for in ODIs, as New Zealand squandered a positive position despite Sophie Devine's 85 (in 98 balls, with nine fours) and her partnership with Brooke Halliday (45 in 37 balls, with six fours), which had NZ at 187/3 at one point. Mlaba unleashed destruction, causing NZ to collapse to 231 all out in 47.5 overs.

Brits partnered Sune Luus to knock off the majority of the total, with the latter hitting the winning runs to make 83* (in 114 balls, with nine fours and a six) as South Africa chased 232 with 9.1 overs remaining.

The right-hander has set herself a target of three tons in this World Cup, something captain Laura Wolvaardt hopes to see realised.

The skipper said: 'She is going amazing, I think she has scored five hundreds in her last 11 games.

'It is just phenomenal to have her in our changing room, and I am very glad she is doing that and continuing it into the World Cup. Hopefully, she can keep doing that for games to come,' she added.

While South Africa's campaign had a lift-off after a disappointing defeat to England in their opener, New Zealand are still searching for their first points.

Suzie Bates notched her 350th appearance for the White Ferns, with Devine playing her 300th.

The experience the skipper, Devine, has is why she is not panicking despite two defeats in two games.

Her side won the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 despite entering the tournament on a run of 10 defeats, so she knows well how quickly things can change.

'We have spoken about this even before we started this competition that we are going to have to win a lot of games,' Devine said. 'And that is no different for us now,' she added.

'It probably puts a little bit more pressure on these remaining games for us, but I think this is a good thing for us, as we know exactly where we stand and what we will have to do. We will reflect on this game, there were still some things that went well during both innings, but we know, in this competition, you cannot just play half a game. There is still a very long way to go in this tournament,' she concluded. (ANI)