Wednesday’s third and final ODI in Potchefstroom, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 12pm, is now winner takes all with England’s six-wicket success in Durban following a victory for South Africa by the same margin in last week’s series opener in Kimberley.
Off-spinner Dean said: “I didn’t even realise I had a hat-trick so it was great to find that out afterwards. It’s pretty cool. I am still learning, still growing, but I think I am becoming a lot more consistent in how I am going about my business.”
Dean is the seventh England cricketer to take an ODI hat-trick, after fellow women’s players Carole Hodges and Clare Connor, as well as Steven Finn, Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson in the men’s team.
England captain Heather Knight said at the presentation, after South Africa had crumbled from 72-2 once Dean made Annerie Dercksen the first of her four wickets on the day: “We had a bit of madness in the middle, which was fun to be involved with. I was quite close to taking Charlie [Dean] off so I was glad I didn’t! It felt like she was quite threatening with the drift. We got one wicket and I wanted us to jump in and get loads of wickets. It’s how we want to play as a team, be aggressive and attacking.”