The second T20I between India and South Africa saw the game go down to the last ball, with the South African women team eventually prevailing to win the match and the series. In the process, South Africa created history as it was their first T20 series win against India.
After winning the first game with five balls to spare, the South African women defeated Team India in a last-ball thriller in the second game of their T20I series on Sunday. After Shafali Verma 47 (31) and Richa Ghosh 44* (26) took India to a decent total of 158 for four after their 20 overs, brilliant knocks from Lizelle Lee 70 (45) and Laura Wolvaardt 53*(39) ensured victory for South Africa.
The Indian batting looked great, with Shafali Verma scoring a quickfire 47 of 31 balls that included six fours and two sixes. Along with Harleen Deol 31 (31), Verma put on a 79-run partnership to put the South African bowlers under pressure. Richa Ghosh came in soon after and played some great shots on her way to a 26-ball 44 not out to make sure that India put up a good total of 158 on the board for their bowlers to defend, a par score on a superb batting surface.
Spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad dismissed Anne Bosch (2) early. Still, Lizelle Lee scored an outstanding 45-ball 70 that included 11 fours and a six and was a part of two important partnerships, adding 58 with her skipper Sune Luus and 50 with Laura Wolvaardt, who played a scintillating knock as well.
Although team India seemed to be in the hunt during the innings, it was their fielding that let them down at specific instances of the game. Lizelle Lee was dropped thrice during her match-winning innings, once by Rajeshwari Gayakwad and twice by Richa Ghosh.
Indian skipper Smriti Mandhana stated after the game,
The way we fielded, we probably didn’t deserve to win the game. We’ll keep working on our fielding,
With two overs to go, South Africa needed 19 runs to win the game. Harleen Deol was given the ball, and she picked up the wicket of Mignon du Preez in the first ball of the over, giving India hope. Post the wicket Deol conceded ten runs leaving Arundhati Reddy to defend nine runs in the last over. Wolvaardt eventually took her team home and created history for the South African Women side.
Mandhana called her side’s loss a “bitter pill to swallow”. She said,
Quite a bitter pill to swallow because it was our game for 80 per cent of the time, and we couldn’t pull it back in the last minute. There are a lot of things to learn from the game.
The way our batters batted was amazing to watch. The way they built partnerships and got us over 150, it was a good total to defend. We needed to do better in the second half of the game,
remarked Mandhana.
Mandhana was also asked if the pressure got to the Indian bowlers to which she replied,
We cannot keep using that as an excuse. We need to get better and hopefully, there will be one match where they get it right.
India will be hoping to correct all their flaws going into the last game of the series. They will be hoping for a lot more from their top order and want their bowlers to fire when needed. While they have already lost the series, a victory in the last game will ensure that they gain some confidence going forward.
