India Women beat South Africa Women by a comfortable 27-run margin in the first match of South Africa Women’s T20I Tri-Series 2023 in East London last night. A substandard batting performance by the hosts saw them managing only 120/9 in 20 overs whilst chasing a 148-run target.
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Playing their first match since Commonwealth Games Women’s Cricket Competition last year, South Africa started on an affirmative note after reducing the visitors to 69/5 in the 12th over. However, the Proteas couldn’t build on an early advantage as a 49-ball 76-run sixth-wicket partnership between India all-rounders Deepti Sharma (33) and Amanjot Kaur (41*) guided them to a competitive innings total.
South Africa, who also lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay, lacked behind due to the absence of an impact-generating partnership especially after a couple of their well-set batters failed to convert individual starts.
India, meanwhile, were assisted by Sharma in the second innings as well. Having opened the bowling with pacer Anjali Sarvani (0/25), Sharma was the pick of the Indian bowlers with figures of 4-0-30-3. While all-rounder Devika Vaidya picked a couple of wickets, spinners Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav dismissed a batter each.
Why Harmanpreet Kaur did not play vs South Africa?
First Indian batter to get out after being asked to bat first by South Africa captain Sune Luus (0/15 and 29), India captain Smriti Mandhana (7) couldn’t contribute with the bat in hand but was capable enough to defend the aforementioned innings total.
Mandhana, who led India for the 11th time in the shortest format, did so in the absence of regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur. For the unversed, Kaur has neither quit as captain nor has been ousted from the squad. It’s just that she was unwell to take the field at the Buffalo Park on Thursday.
In fact, other than 33-year old Kaur, pacers Renuka Singh and Shikha Pandey also didn’t take part in the match due to a suspected illness. Readers must note that there were reports of a bug affecting players of both the teams ahead of the match.
