India Women took an initial lead in the five-match T20I series by beating South Africa Women at Surat.
Asked to bat first India Women struggled initially as the top order could not deliver. They started losing wickets frequently from the beginning. When they were crawling at 58/3 and batters like Smriti Mandhana (21) and Jemimah Rodrigues (19) were already back to the pavilion. It was heartbreaking for 15-year old Shafali Verma who went for a four-ball duck on her debut.
The skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took the charge along with Deepti Sharma and largely due to her India could manage to set a decent score on board. Kaur scored 34-ball 43 and developed a partnership of 46 runs with Sharma (16) to give a break to the collapse. But both were gone in the same over, thanks to a showcase by Nadine de Klerk (2/10). At that point the innings was almost over for India. Veda Krishnamurthy’s 10 and Taniya Bhatia’s 5-ball 11 cameo helped Indians to take the final score to 130 for the loss of eight wickets.
Shabnim Ismail was devastating and finished with 4-0-26-3. Ayabonga Khaka, although did not get any wicket, delivered a brilliant spell as she only conceded 10 runs in four overs. It was a collective effort from South African Women that they could restrict India for a low score.
Defending 130 was never going to be an easy task. But the pitch was tricky and the visitors took advantage of the same. Apart from Mignon du Preez none could show persistence and South Africa kept on losing wickets. Mignon although kept the hunt on and stood tall the last over. It was for her that the match was on for her team till the end. She added 32 runs with Ayabonga Khaka (5), causing some anxiety to the home team. Both took South Africa to 105/8 from 73/7.
Shikha Pandey, thankfully rose to the occasion to break the partnership in the 18th over. But Mignon was determined to take her team past finishing line. The next over saw Deepti Sharma conceding eight runs and eventually the chase was brought down to 12 runs off last five deliveries.
But Radha Yadav (2/29) showed utmost brilliance to end Mignon’s gritty innings of 43-ball 59. She took two wickets in the last over to hand over 11-run victory to India. Indian bowlers were outstanding throughout. If Radha Yadav’s over finished the job for India, Deepti Sharma’s outstanding spell with three maidens and three wickets in four overs never let South Africans took control. Her bowling figures were 3-3-0-3 at one point as she conceded only eight runs in her four overs. Shikha Pandey had 4-0-18-2 and Poonam Yadav ended with 4-0-25-2.
India Women: 130/8 (Harmanpreet Kaur 43, Smriti Mandhana 21; Shabnim Ismail 3/26) South Africa Women: 119 (Mignon du Preez 59, Lizelle Lee 16; Deepti Sharma 3/8)