South Africa, building on Nadine de Klerk’s career best, defeated India by three wickets at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
The defeat has ended India’s winning start in the ongoing World Cup. The Women in Blue started their campaign with back-to-back wins before suffering defeat to South Africa. With two wins from three matches, India are currently at the third spot in the points table and will face table-toppers Australia next.
India’s top and middle class exposed
South Africa, on the other hand, is in fourth place with two wins from three matches. They started their campaign with a 10-wicket defeat to England before bouncing back with impressive victories over New Zealand and India.
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For the third match in a row, India suffered a batting collapse and were reeling at 102/6. The home side were at 83/1 at one point before Harleen Deol’s dismissal in the 17th innings caused a collapse. India went on to lose five wickets for just 19 runs, putting them firmly on the back foot.
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Richa Ghosh then took charge of the innings and scored a brilliant 94 to propel her team to a competitive total of 251 runs. Her knock came off just 77 balls and was littered with 11 fours and 4 sixes.
Richa and Amanjot Kaur steadied the ship by adding 51 runs for the seventh wicket before departing for 13. It was followed by an 88-run stand between Richa and Sneh Rana for the eighth wicket. Richa looked destined to complete a stunning century but lost her wicket on the fourth ball of the final.
For South Africa, Chloe Tryon took 3 wickets, while Marizanne Kapp, de Klerk and Nonkululeko Mlaba claimed two wickets each.
Nadine de Klerk takes South Africa home:
Chasing 252 runs, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals from the outset, tottering at 81/5 in the 20th over. Their chances of winning the match seemed as good as over at that moment, but captain Laura Wolvaardt kept her team in the match with a nice knock of 70 runs.
She and Tryon revived South Africa’s hopes with a 61-run stand for the sixth wicket before Kranti Gaud dismissed the South Africa captain to put India in the driver’s seat. However, the wicket did not bring India any reprieve as De Klerk did not let them capitalize on the breakthrough.
She and Tryon turned the game on its head by adding 69 runs for the seventh wicket. Sneh Rana ended the stand by dismissing Tryon for 49, but de Klerk stayed till the end and scored an unbeaten 84 off just 54 balls to take her team home inside 49 overs. Her knock was littered with 8 fours and 5 sixes.
Short scores between India and South Africa:
India 251 (49.5 surpluses): Richa Ghosh 94 (77); Chloe Tryon 3-32
South Africa 252-7 (48.5 overs): Nadin de Cleck 84* (54), Laura Wolbres 70 (111)
South Africa won by three wickets
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