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India’s women cruise to easy win to whitewash ODI series

cricket23 June 2024 15:48
By:Patrick Compton
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India’s women cruised to a six-wicket victory with 9.2 overs to spare to complete a 3-0 ODI series win over South Africa at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.

 

South Africa won the toss and struggled to 215 for eight after Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits had completed a century opening stand.

India, powered by an exquisite 90 from opener Smriti Mandhana – India’s female equivalent to Sourav Ganguly – sauntered to a lopsided win with their captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, run out by a direct throw from Brits when she had reached 42 with the home team just two runs short of victory.

The game was over three balls later when Richa Ghosh finished off the match in the most appropriate way, smashing a straight six off Tumi Sekukhune to take India to 220 for four in 40.4 overs.

The only truly competitive match in the series, when South Africa fell just four runs short in the second ODI, has now been sandwiched between two lopsided wins with India completing an initial win by 143 runs.

India were superior in all departments of the game with left-handed batter Mandhana striking 11 fours in elegant style, ranging from cover drives to clips off her hips.

Her timing throughout was impeccable. She has now completed innings of 117, 136 and 90 in the series with her total of 343 runs a record for a three-match ODI series.

SA skipper Wolvhaardt accepted afterwards that her team simply didn’t have enough runs on the board.

“I think Tazmin (Brits) and I had a decent start (102 for the first wicket) after a slow first powerplay, but after that we just didn’t build any partnerships. After seeing them bat, I think we would have needed 300 to make it competitive. Overall we played good cricket in patches but we need much more consistency with both bat and ball.”

SA COLLAPSE

South Africa's bowlers bowled both sides of the wicket and frequently the wrong lengths as the Indian batters flourished.

The only South African bowler to trouble the batters was left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba who extracted good turn at times and generally flighted the ball well.

Wolvaardt and Brits had begun cautiously when the visitors batted first with Brits dominating the strike but struggling for timing.

After nine overs, the South Africans had crawled to 29 but Wolvaardt restored some momentum with four boundaries off the final over of the powerplay which they reached on 46 without loss.

The pair reached the hundred mark for the first time in the series as they picked up the pace before Wolvaardt – by far the most fluent of the two – drove pace bowler Arundhati Reddy firmly back only for the bowler to claim a sharp catch.

The South African captain had struck seven typically handsome boundaries in her innings of 61 in 57 balls, her 32nd ODI fifty.

Her dismissal led to the loss of four wickets for 18 runs, with Brits the next to go for 38 – the self-made victim of a runout as she drove a delivery from Deepti Sharma firmly to mid-off before running heedlessly for the single.

Marizanne Kapp – correctly – did not respond and Brits, who had nearly run herself out previously, was run out by the length of the pitch.

Anneke Bosch then became Reddy’s second caught-and-bowled victim.

If anything this was an even better catch as she lunged low and to her left to cling onto another firm drive.

Spinner Shreyanka Patil then completed a hat-trick of caught-and-bowleds, an easier catch this time, as she deceived Marizanne Kapp into chipping a flighted delivery back to her.

South Africa were now in full collapse mode, signalled by another poor runout as Nondumiso Shangase became the second victim of poor communication, this time at the hands of Nadine de Klerk.

Sharma then bowled De Klerk (26) and Nonkululeko Mlaba with consecutive deliveries and South Africa seemed to have largely wasted their good start, slipping to 178 for eight.

The innings did finish on a more positive note, however, with Mieke de Ridder (26 off 31 balls) and Tumi Sekhukune adding 37 off 46 balls to take South Africa to their final total.

For India, Sharma (2-27 in 10 overs) and Reddy (2-36 in 10) were the home team’s most successful bowlers.

INDIA: Smriti Mandhana, Shafall Verma, Priya Punia, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Richa Ghosh (wk), Jemima Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil

SOUTH AFRICA: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Tazmin Brits, Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Nondumiso Shangase, Mieke de Ridder (wk), Tumi Sekhukhune, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Ayabonga Khaka

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