South Africa Women tour of India 2021 News

Anneke Elizabeth Bosch pulled a short ball from Arundhati Reddy past the short square leg for a four to finish off the proceedings of what was another brilliant outing for the South Africa Women on their already dream tour of India. The all-rounder was on top of her game tonight as she has been throughout the tour. The right-hander, who came in as an opening partner to Lizelle Lee was the most detrimental figure with her unbeaten 66 off 48 balls, in South Africa women’s victory in the inaugural T20I of the three-match series at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow. Bosch’s contribution was not only with the bat, but even with the ball she was superb, getting rid of two set Indian batswomen, debutant half centurion Harleen Deol and Jemimah Rodriguez in the same over. Bowling in the death, she gave away only 11 runs in her two overs and took two wickets as well. It was her and Shabnim Ismail with their lethal death bowling that restricted India to only 130 even after being 104/2 at the end of the 15th over. Bosch, 27, was adjudged Woman of the Match for this scintillating performance of her. Chasing a modest target of 131 set by India, Sune Luus’ team didn’t have a good start as even after getting dropped for nought, Lee, the sensation from the recently concluded ODI series, was caught at mid-on, just when she was at four. But that was the only source of joy for a long time for the Indian team as Luus and Bosch built a strong partnership. The South Africans were also helped by some very poor display of fielding from the women in blue. While Lee was stropped early on, even Bosch was given a chance first in the 11th over, the first of Deol, where the keeper Nuzhat Praween couldn’t hold on to a sharp edge. Bosch was at 27 then. In the 15th over, a brilliant fielding from Deepti Sharma of her own bowling created a runout opportunity, but the keeper was too late to dislodge the bails after collecting the throw from the bowler’s end from Deepti. Once again in the sixteenth over, Rajeshwari Gayakwad dropped a sitter of Luus, off the bowling of Deol. Although that did not cost much as Luus was caught by Deol on her own bowling off the very next ball. But not having learnt a lesson, Richa Ghosh committed a school girl’s error at Point in the 18th over just when the run rate pressure was building on the South Africans. All this caused a lot of problems for the Indians as the South Africans won the game with five balls remaining. Earlier in the evening, after losing the toss Smriti Mandhana and her women were sent to bat first. India didn’t have a good start and lost skipper Mandhana early, who was standing in for permanent captain Harmanprret as she suffered from ‘Hip Flexor’ prior to the game. Even after losing Mandhana early, Harleen, first with Shafali Verma and then with Rodriguez created useful partnerships which helped India get to 130. Deol's 52 off 47 was the highest individual score from the Indian side. The second game would be played at the same venue on Sunday 21st March and Indian eves would have one last chance to make sure they stay alive in the series and get a shot at avenging the ODI series loss.

India women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s injury has given vice-captain Smriti Mandhana an opportunity to lead the team in the first T20I against South Africa women. The Mumbai born would be leading India for the fifth time having become the youngest Indian T20 captain, when she captained the Indian women against South Africa in a three-match T20 series in 2019. In her previous four games, she had won one and lost three. "She has been ruled out of tomorrow's match and the rest of the updates on her injury will be given by the medical team and the team management," Mandhana told the press on the eve of the first T20I of the three-match T20I series against South Africa, being held at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow. "It will be better for them to speak about it rather than me," Mandhana 24 added. India would be looking to avenge their 1-4 ODI series loss when they take on the Laura Wolvaardt side in the first match tomorrow. This is also going to be the first time that Indian women would be playing after their horrific World T20 final loss against Australia on 8th March in 2020.

South Africa veteran Lizelle Lee turned on her A-game as she scored only her third hundred in ODI cricket to take South Africa home through a Duckworth-Lewis and Stern method. Lee carried her bat, scoring a brilliant 132 off 131 ball in a chase of 249. Along with Lee, another experienced campaigner Mignon du Preez also played an important cameo, scoring a quickfire 37 to give the team the desired pull during the chase. The chase started in a positive manner for the rainbow nation’s eves as Laura Wolvaardt, making her captaincy debut, added 41 runs with Lee. However, once she was removed for 12, Lara Goodall couldn’t make much of an impact either, getting out for 16, after a 49 that she had scored in the previous game. Lee though remained unperturbed by these dismissals and continued building upon her momentum. Joined by du Preez, she started taking on the Indian bowlers as the two added 97 in 90 balls. However, just after du Preez’s dismissal of Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami removed Marizanne Kapp to put South African women in a spot of bother, as they could only get 10 runs in the next three overs. But just when the required rate started climbing, Lee pulled up her socks and started scoring briskly, even as her partner Anne Bosch found it difficult to even rotate the strike. Lee’s last 23 runs came in just 15 balls. Just before the start of the rain came in, South Africa women hit 10 runs in the previous over to get ahead of the par score of 217 by six runs. Earlier in the day, Wolvaardt won the toss and put India to bat first. It was a third failure in the row for Jemimah Rodriguez as she was removed by Shambnim Ismail for nought. Smriti Mandhana too couldn’t get a big score in this game and India were 64-2 when skipper Mithali Raj joined Punam Raut in the middle. Mithali, after getting to the milestone 10,000 international runs got out, but Raut continued scoring 77 off 108 balls. With Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma’s 36 each, India was able to make it to 248 in their 50 overs. With this win at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow, South Africa w lead the five-match series 2-1. Lee was awarded Man of the Match for her brilliant innings.

Indian women’s team ODI skipper Mithali Raj became only the second woman in the world to reach the milestone of 10,000 runs. She joined English Women’s cricket legend Charlotte Edwards in the elite list. By scoring the 35th run in her 36 run innings vs South Africa in the third match of the 5 match ODI series. Mithali, 38, is also the all-time leading run-scorer in woman’s ODI cricket with 6974 runs in her kitty at an average of 50.64 and at a strike rate of 85. The Andhra born has seven hundreds and 54 fifties in her 212 match ODI career. Apart from the ODIs, she has also scored 2364 runs in 89 T20Is and 663 in runs in 10 Tests. The match in which this feat was achieved is the third game of the five-match series which is tied at 1-1. The Indian women have set up a target of 249 courtesy a 77 off 108 balls by Punam Raut. In reply, South Africa women were at 55-1 in the reply at the time of writing this piece.

It was Jhulan Goswami show on display in batting while Smiriti Mandhana stole the show in batting to thrash South Africa in the second game of the five-match series. Jhulan was at her vintage best as she broke two partnerships in her two spells, eventually claiming four wickets for 42 runs in her 10 overs. Mandhana, 24, was at her very best as India started the chase of a modest 158. She and Jemimah Rodriguez got India to a brisk start making 22 in the first four overs. Jemimah though got out trying to pull a boat down the leg and chopping it on to her stumps, Mandhana continued on her way. She was joined by Punam Raut and the two carried on till India eventually won the game and levelled the series. Mandhana, on her way to 80 off 64 balls also became the most accomplished female opening batsman of India, going past Jaya Sharma’s tally of 2039. While Jaya had scored those runs in 72 games, Mandhana achieved the feat in only 52 games. She now has 2119 runs in 52 games at an astonishing average of 44.15. Raut also brought up her 14th fifty scoring an unbeaten 62 as India chase down 157 in just 28.4 overs. Earlier in the morning, Mithali Raj, the India skipper won the toss and decided to field first. Manasi Joshi, making a comeback into the Indian team gave early blows to South African eves along with Jhulan. However, after the fall of those two wickets, skipper Sune Luus and Lara Goodall added 60 runs trying to steady the ship. But Jhulan came back to break the partnership and once it was broken, the floodgates opened and Indian bowlers kept on striking one after the other. Goodall was the highest scorer for women in green and yellow, getting removed for 49 by Harmanpreet Kaur. Apart from Jhulan’s four-for, Rajeshwari Gayakwad took three wickets while Joshi picked up two. With this win at the Atal Bihari Bajpayee stadium, Indian eves have now levelled the five-match series and the two teams would now faceoff in the third game on 12th March at the same venue.

India women’s team opener Smriti Mandhana has become the most successful opening batter for the team. She has bow accumulated 2046 runs in 52 ODIs surpassing Jaya Sharma’s tally of 2039 in 72 games. Mandhana has notched up 4 tons and 17 fifties and has scored runs at an average of over 43 in the 50-over format. Earlier, Mandhana’s 80* and Puma Raut’s 62* helped Indian women’s team script a 9-wicket win against South Africa in the second ODI in Lucknow to level the five-match series. The left-handed opener just took 64 balls to score 80 runs during the chase of 158 runs and her knock included 10 boundaries and three maximums. Mandhana has scored four half-centuries in her last five ODIs and has 50+ runs in every ODI chase beginning from 2018. Since 2018, the left-hander has scored 1150 runs in 21 matches for India at an average of 67.6. India bowled out South Africa for 157 in 41 overs after Jhulan Goswami scalped four wickets while Gayakwad bagged a three-wicket haul. Lara Goodall top-scored with 49 for South Africa. The two teams will now play the next ODI on Friday at the same venue. The ODI series will be followed by a three-match T20I series.