The South Africa Women’s team defeated the Indians 4-1 in the ODIs and lead the three-match T20I series 2-0.
It’s been a fantastic tour of India for the South African Women’s team. They were dominant throughout the ODI series, which they won 4-1 and in the three-match T20I rubber, they have sealed the series with a game to go.
Be it the batters or the bowlers, most players have stepped up and even in the absence of some star players, South Africa Women have managed to get over the line. Sune Luus missed a couple of ODI games in between. Marizanne Kapp hasn’t featured in the T20I series so far. Despite that, the Proteas Women have dominated and are high on confidence. Regular skipper Dane van Niekerk and star all-rounder Chloe Tryon missed this series as they are recovering from their respective injuries.
Thus, it’s been a splendid performance from the South Africa Women. In fact, skipper Sune Luus felt that her side is playing some fearless cricket and backing each other to get the job done. They feel they can get over the line even in the absence of the big stars. She wants the team to go for the kill and win the series 3-0.
Our confidence levels are where we want them to be. The girls are backing themselves and playing fearless cricket and in T20s, that’s what you want. It’s so good for our future. We know that if on the day we can’t play Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail, or Lizelle Lee, there are players coming in, and we back them, they back themselves. There’s a chance for us to make it 3-0 and that will be even bigger than a series win,
South Africa Women’s skipper Sune Luus was quoted saying in the post-match presentation after the second T20I in Lucknow.
South Africa Women have chased superbly on this tour. They may have won six out of the seven tosses so far, but India Women have batted well on most occasions, and it wasn’t all that easy for South Africa Women, but they have found ways to get over the line.
In the second T20I, they hunted down 159 on the final ball of the innings to take an unbeatable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series. That run-chase was third-highest for South Africa Women in the history of T20I cricket. They had chased down 166 against England Women in 2018 and 176 against Pakistan Women in 2019 before this.
Laura Wolvaardt played a crucial role in helping the team chase down the target. She walked into bat at 66/2 in the 10th over when the required run rate was well over 9 at that stage. She didn’t have the most fluent start to her knock. Wolvaardt was 7 off 11 balls at one stage but a boundary off Rajeshwari Gayakwad got her going. From then on, Wolvaardt paced her innings beautifully and scored 53 not out from 39 balls to help the Proteas Women cross the finish line. She was the one who did the bulk of the scoring towards the end of the game.
I didn’t start my innings as quickly as I would have liked so I put some pressure on myself, but I knew with a fast outfield, we were in with a chance if we took it deep. I’m glad I was there at the end to do it,
Laura Wolvaardt was quoted saying.
This was South Africa Women’s first T20I series win against India ever. They have been playing solid cricket over in the recent past. They beat Pakistan Women 3-0 in the ODI series before winning the T20I series 2-1.
