It looked like India Women were going to replicate their final T20I performance in the third and final ODI match against South Africa Women. But thankfully the bowlers saved the face and helped the team win the series 3-0.
Mithali Raj elected to bat first winning the toss. But it was a terrible performance delivered by the Indian batting line-up. The openers failed to give a good base as both were gone within the first two overs. With the scoreline showing 5/2 the captain walked in to take the charge. But even Mithali could not save the team from the disaster as she could add only 15 runs off 33 balls. Mithali Raj did try to steady the ship along for a while with Poonam Raut. However, they both fell quickly and India were 39/4 in 16.3 overs.
Then it was Harmanpreet Kaur who put up some fight. But her efforts were not enough. She kept batting from one end only to see her colleagues going back to the pavilion one after another. Kaur played a crucial knock of 38 runs which came off 76 balls. Shikha Pandey was another key contributor who scored 35 valuable runs down the order to save the team from collapse. India somehow reached near 150-mark and the fate of the match was almost decided.
Earlier Indians won T20I series 3-1 a few days back against the Proteas. They lost the final match to register their biggest defeat in the shortest format of the game. The final ODI was about to end in a similar way but fortunately, Indian bowlers rose to the occasion.
They produced a stupendous bowling performance to turn the match a low scoring thriller that saw Indians finally claiming a whitewash.
Chasing 147, the visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals from the initial stage. They looked clueless in front of the Indian bowling attack and lost all track. None of the batters could contribute with a big score and took the lead of the run-chase. Marizanne Kapp (29), captain Sune Luus (24) and Laura Wolvaardt (23) did contribute but nothing really worked eventually. At the mid-way of the South African innings, the chase seemed probable when the skipper and Kapp focused on building a partnership. They took the score from 63/5 to 103/6. Soon the Ekta Bisth and co. were back with ruthless bowling to take India home.
Ekta, the Player of the Match, took three wickets, giving away just 32 runs from her 10 overs. She was well supported by Deepti and Rajeshwari who scalped two wickets apiece. Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, also contributed with the ball and chipped in with a wicket each. India Women finally registered win by six wickets.