India Women vs South Africa Women: The hosts complete a 3-0 clean sweep at Vadodara
India women won a low-scoring thriller at Vadodara on the 14th of October to complete a clean sweep in the three-match ODI series against South Africa women. The Indian slower bowlers persevered with tight lengths and took the pace off the ball completely to leave the South African battters searching for run-scoring opportunities.
Needing eight runs off the last three overs, Mithali Raj handed the ball to Jemimah Rodrigues, who had only one over under her belt in her entire career. Jemimah took the wicket of Tumi Sekhukhune off the last ball of the 48th over to complete India’s remarkable comeback.
Marizanne Kapp’s all-round display of three wickets and 29 runs vent in vain as South Africa women were bundled out for 140, chasing a target of 147.
After electing to bat first, the Indian side were bowled out for only 146 in 45.5 overs. The star of the first ODI, Priya Punia got out for a duck while captain Mithali struggled for timing as she was dismissed after making 11 runs in 46 deliveries.
However, T20 captain, Harmanpreet Kaur played a sensible knock of 38 in 76 balls. She was well supported by Shikha Pandey lower down the order who played a relatively aggressive innings of 35 off 40 deliveries that included six hits to the fence.
For South Africa, Kapp had the best figures of 3 for 20 in nine overs. She removed the dangerous trio of Jemimah, Mithali and Harmanpreet to tighten the screws on India.
In reply, the South African side were shot out in 48 overs. Kapp top-scored with the bat as well, scoring 29 runs in a match where every batter found scoring tough. Ekta Bisht took three wickets while Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad took two wickets apiece on a sluggish track.
The win completed a successful series for the Indian women, who had earlier clinched the T20I series 3-1. India women had won the first ODI by eight wickets and registered their highest successful run-chase of 248 runs a couple of days later to win the second encounter by 5 wickets.
Also see - Live cricket score