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On Friday, July 5, the South African women’s team defeated India by 12 runs in the first T20I of the three-match series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp were the star performers for South Africa in their first win on the Indian tour, with both scoring fifties to help the team put a massive score of 189/4 on the board.
Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian cricket women’s captain, won the toss and chose to field first on a pitch, which was expected to be good for batting, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The South African batters took advantage of the placid batting conditions and put pressure on the bowlers from the get-go.
The South African captain, Laura Wolvaardt, got off to a flyer, scoring 33 off 22 with three fours and two maximums. After Radha Yadav castled her to provide India their first breakthrough of the evening, the second wicket stand of 96 runs between Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp had a great display of power hitting, albeit with some help from the fielders dropping catches.
Both the South African batters completed their fifties to help propel the South African total to 189/4 in their allotted overs. Tazmin Brits top scored with 81 off 56 with 10 fours and three maximums, while Marizanne Kapp got 57 off 33 eight fours and one maximum, while for India, Pooja Vastrakar registered figures of 2/23 in her spell.
In the run chase, the Indian batting unit got a brilliant start from the world-renowned opening pair of Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. The 56-run opening stand was broken by Ayabonga Khaka, who sent Shafali Verma back into the pavilion for 18 off 14.
After scoring 46 off 30 with seven fours and two maximums, Smriti Mandhana lost her wicket, and Dayalan Hemalatha followed her on the very next ball. It brought two new batters to the crease for India, namely Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues, with 103 runs needed in 59 balls.
Kaur and Rodrigues shared a 90-run stand for the fourth wicket, but they weren’t able to keep the required run rate in check in the latter half of the Indian innings. They fell short of the 189-run target by 12 runs after the Indian captain got stumped on the last ball of the innings.
