After decimating the South African women in one-off test match and in ODIs, now the India women are taking on the Proteas in T20Is.
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss, and India elected to bowl first in the first women’s T20I against South Africa at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai. It was understandable, considering the Chepauk black soil surface, which usually favors spinners the most. Also, she backed three good spinners: Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, and Asha Sobhana. However, South Africa’s batting lineup was looking to retaliate, which they did.
Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits laid the foundation
In the first inning, captain Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits provided a power-packed start for South Africa. Wolvaardt made 33 runs with a powerful strike rate of 150, while the Brits were unstoppable against the Indian bowlers, scoring 81 runs in just 56 balls and establishing a solid base.
Marizanne Kapp, timeless finisher
We witnessed lots of misfielding by the Indian women, or, should I say, a few butter-fingered Indian fielders, which cost the women in blue dearly. The Indian women dropped three catches. Also, Richa Ghosh picked up an injury in the 16th over after she fell face-first on the ground while attempting to take a catch of Tazmin Brits. Ghosh had dropped a straightforward catch off Pooja Vastrakar’s bowling.
It was enough for the Proteas to capitalize on. They made 189 runs, thanks to the evergreen Marizanne Kapp, whose innings of 57 runs had a thunderbolt strike rate of 172, creating havoc among the Indian women.
India failed to cross the mark!
And when it comes to India’s batting, in the first five overs, they maintained a run rate of almost 10 as the women in blue stamped 54 runs in just 5 overs. But we saw a sudden dip, especially when Shafali Verma got out with the score at 18. The dip worsened when Smriti Mandhana got out for 46 runs in just 30 balls. From then on, the women in blue struggled while batting, as the run rate crossed 10 and the Indian women didn’t look up to the mark.
Although we saw retaliation from Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur, and they fought till the end, there was a slice of miracle we were about to witness when 39 runs were needed in 12 balls, and Jemimah’s massive 18 runs pulled India back into the game. However, in the last over, 21 runs were needed, but ultimately the Harmanpreet-Jemimah duo failed to cross the 189-run mark.
Result: SA Women won by 12 runs
We did not play good cricket!
‘We did not play good cricket. They bowled very well. They did not give us easy runs at all. It was also because of the dot balls that we played that pushed us. If we had been more aware of our strengths, we could have been able to push for victory. With the start we got with the bat, we hoped that we would be able to get over the line. We will sit together and discuss what we need to do now.’ Harmanpreet Kaur after the game
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