South African captain Laura Wolvaardt’s magnificent 92 not out laid the platform for a hard-earned 23-run victory for her team in the fifth and final T20 International against India at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Monday.
Wolvaardt carried her bat with wickets falling regularly at the other to post a competitive but far from daunting total of 155-6 before two wickets apiece from Nonkululeko Mlaba and Nadine de Klerk helped restrict the tourists to 132-8 in reply.
Wolvaardt’s remarkable innings came from just 56 balls with the next highest score coming from opening partner Sune Luus who contributed a run-a-ball 23 to an opening partnership of 75 before the wheels came off in dramatic fashion in the second half of the innings.
When Wolvaardt was finally able to get to the striker’s end she continued to be devastating with 16 runs coming from the final over and 29 from the last two which gave the home side a chance.
India lost three early wickets at the start of the run-chase with Chloe Tryon claiming three catches at short fine leg, long on and deep midwicket before the excellent Mlaba (4-1-15-2) claimed the vital wicket of captain Harmanpreet Kaur (22) with a top-edged slog-sweep snaffled at mid off by Wolvaardt.
Top-scorer Bharti Fulmali (40) was trapped lbw by Tryon’s left arm spin and Deepti Sharma (8) was superbly stumped by Sinala Jafta off medium pacer de Klerk.
Keeper and big-hitter Richa Ghosh (25* from 15 balls) tried her best to keep India in the game but ran out of balls and partners.
But it was Wolvaardt who once again claimed the plaudits striking 11 fours and two sixes to take her tally for the series to a remarkable 330 runs, the most by any player in a bilateral series. It included an unbeaten 115 to clinch the series in the third match.
Luus was smartly stumped by Ghosh off left arm spinner Shree Charani (2-22) and Tazmin Brits (2) played over a yorker and was bowled by the same bowler.
Annerie Dercksen (0) reverse-swept off-spinner Deepti Sharma straight to short fine leg and Anneke Bosch (8) missed a straightforward off-break from Sharma (2-37) and was bowled.
The procession of wickets continued with Wolvaardt stranded for too long at the non-striker’s end, Tryon (12) slapping a slower ball from outstanding seamer Renuka Singh (2-21) to cover and de Klerk (1) missing a pull shot to be trapped lbw.
Jafta finally offered her captain the support she needed in the last couple of overs contributing 16* from just eight balls with two fours.
The home side completed victory in the series by winning the first three matches but lost the fourth at the Wanderers by 14-runs before completing a 4-1 series victory.
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (captain), Sune Luus, Tazmin Brits, Annerie Dercksen, Anneke Bosch, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta (wkt), Eliz-mari Marx, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba
India: Shafali Verma, Anushka Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wkt), Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur