Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt shine as South Africa Women beat India Women in last-ball thriller
Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt scored a half-century each for South Africa Women as they defeated India Women by six wickets to win the 3-match T20I series between the two teams. Lee scored 70 runs off 45 deliveries, while Wolvaardt remained unbeaten on 53* to guide the visitors to another win in Lucknow.
Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh played brilliantly in the first innings to set a 160-run target for the South Africa Women. The match went down to the wire, with the visitors requiring nine runs off the final six deliveries to win.
It seemed like Arundhati Reddy would win the day for India Women. However, a no-ball on the fifth delivery took the game away from Smriti Mandhana's team. Eventually, South Africa Women won on the last ball.
Brief Scores: India Women 158/4 (Shafali Verma 47, Richa Ghosh 44*; Anne Bosch 1/26, Nonkululeko Mlaba 1/27) lost to South Africa Women 159/4 (Lizelle Lee 70, Laura Wolvaardt 53*; Rajeshwari Gayakwad 1/20, Radha Yadav 1/25) by six wickets.
Earlier in the evening, Sune Luus won the toss and invited India Women to bat first. Unlike the first T20I, the home side managed to breach the 150-run mark. Shafali Verma smashed six fours and two sixes in her 31-ball 47, while Harleen Deol played the anchor's role with a 31-run knock at a strike rate of 100.
Richa Ghosh provided an excellent finish to the innings. She aggregated 44 runs off only 26 deliveries to take India to 158/4. Ghosh's innings comprised eight boundaries. None of the South Africa Women bowlers could make much of an impact in the first innings. Ayabhonga Khaka was the most economical with 0/24 in four overs.
Lizelle Lee blew away the Indian Women bowling attack
South Africa's opener Lizelle Lee had a forgettable outing in the first T20I. However, she played a magnificent inning of 70 runs in the second game.
Opening the visitors' innings, Lizelle Lee hit 11 boundaries and a maximum in her 45-ball knock. Her opening partner Anne Bosch departed to the dressing room in the second over itself. Lizelle Lee built a 58-run partnership with skipper Luus for the second wicket.
Laura Wolvaardt arrived in the middle after Luus got run out. Wolvaardt took the chase to the final overs. She smacked back-to-back boundaries on the final two deliveries off the penultimate over bowled by Harleen Deol to ensure South Africa Women needed less than 10 in the final six.
Although Arundhati Reddy gave away just three runs off the first four deliveries, a waist-high no-ball turned the game again in South Africa Women's favor. Wolvaardt took two runs off the full toss to bring the equation down to 3 from 2. She added two more runs to the total on the subsequent free hit.
The visitors required a single off the final ball, and a fumble by Richa Ghosh allowed them to complete the target comfortably.