England win series

Seamer Mark Wood bowled a sensational last over for England to beat top-ranked South Africa by two runs and win their oneday international series on Sunday (NZ time) Saturday. David Miller and Chris Morris batted South Africa down to needing 10 runs off the last 10 balls for victory. But medium-pacer Jake Ball conceded only three runs off his last four deliveries, and Wood gave up only four singles in a tense last over. South Africa finished at 328-5 after England capitalised on dropped catches and made 330-6. Miller was unbeaten on 71 and Morris on 36 as South Africa failed to complete a winning advantage for a second straight ODI. England won the series with a match to spare after beating South Africa by 72 runs at Headingley. The third and last ODI is on Monday (UK time) at Lord’s. When Kelly Jury is defending in the ANZ Premiership, she usually has a height advantage on the shooter she is up against.

There is a notable exception in Jhaniele Fowler-Reid, the Southern Steel’s 1.98m Jamaican import but, other than that, the competition’s leading goal shoots are all several centimetres shorter than Jury’s 1.92m.

So it’s intriguing that when she and the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic host the Mainland Tactix tonight, that’s not likely to be the case.

With their season floundering, the winless team from Christchurch have turned to Ellie Bird, a 1.94m shooter who began the season in their development squad.

Jury has faced Bird before, but

that was back when she was at high school, and she said that she was sure things have changed for both of them since then.

‘‘After seeing her go from Beko to ANZ, she’s really relished her opportunity,’’ Jury said.

‘‘It will just be about watching video of her, and figuring out ways we can combat her and get the ball.’’

Jury was first signed by the Magic ahead of the 2015 transTasman league season, but suffered an achilles injury the day after that was confirmed, which

meant she wasn’t fit for the start of that campaign, where she didn’t feature at all.

Last year, with Casey Kopua on the sidelines having a baby, and Leana de Bruin injured to begin with, she got thrown in the deep end from game one, and showed enough to be selected for the Silver Ferns for their tests at the start of this year.

The 20-year-old has also been included in the New Zealand squad for July’s Netball World Youth Cup. She said that she was stoked with what she got in 2016, and that all she had wanted to do was take on as much as she could.

‘‘Now I feel this year, I can put all that into play. Having that consistent game time is helping my fitness and helping my mentality going into each game, and I know I can put a performance in for 60 minutes, and back it up the next week.

‘‘I was actually thinking about this the other day - I haven’t had that kind of consistent game time since high school, so it’s a great feeling.’’

Last year, Jury was the Magic’s rookie, but as this season began, she was one of just four players who had any experience playing at elite level in domestic netball - Casey Kopua, Grace Rasmussen, and Sam Sinclair were the others - and that has meant becoming more of a leader.

‘‘Now I’m one of the more experienced ones in the team, I’ve had to step up in that role, and Casey’s really helped me, she’s really encouraging. It’s great when they ask me what do I think, and I get the ability to put my input in.’’

Last year, Jury had Kopua as a coach, but this season, she has the former Silver Ferns star on court beside her in the defensive circle, where they have formed a solid partnership.

‘‘We just seem to work really well together - that’s my half of the story anyway,’’ said Jury laughing.

‘‘I’m learning heaps off her, and I’ve had to learn to tell her what to do sometimes - she likes to be talked to - so that’s probably one of the biggest things for me, having to tell Casey Kopua what to do.’’

The Magic will be looking to end a three-game losing run tonight, with the first centre pass at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton set for 7.40pm.