South African women produced a dominating performance to defeat the Indian women’s by 115 runs at Grace Road, Leicester. Electing to field, the Indian bowlers could not control the South African batter and were able to post 273 for 9. While Chasing, the Indian batters lost wickets at regular intervals, bowled out for 158 runs.
Indian captain Mithali Raj won the toss and elected to field. Shikha Pandey got the early breakthrough by picking Wolvaardt in the second over for 1. After that L Lee was in the great striking mood as South African women scored 71 runs after the first 10 overs. Lee completed her fifty in 43 balls. Ekta Bisht took the wicket of Chetty to stem the flow of runs. du Preez and Lee continued to play positive cricket adding 42 runs for the third wicket. Lee was dismissed for 92 in 65 balls with 10 fours and 7 sixes. Van Niekerk played captains knock of 57 in 66 balls to help South African women put a competitive total of 273 for 9 in 50 overs. The middle order and lower order added important runs. Shikha Pandey was the pick of bowlers taking 3 wickets for 40 runs.
The Indian innings got off to a worse start losing the wicket Smriti Mandhana for 4 runs. Punam Raut and Deepti Sharma steadied the innings scoring 40 runs in first 10 overs. Right after the power play overs, Raut was dismissed for 22. India lost 2 important wickets of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur to leave India at 49 for 4. The Indian eves continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Sharma continued to play positive shots by completing her fifty in 79 balls. She was dismissed for 60. Jhulan Goswami remained not out on 43 as Indian women were bowled out for 158 in 46 overs.
In the other match, New Zealand women defeated Pakistan women by 8 wickets
South African women 273 for 9 in 50 overs ( L Lee 92, D Van Niekerk 57, Shikha Pandey 3/40) beat Indian women 158 in 46 overs ( Deepti Sharma 60, Van Niekerk 4/22) by 115 runs.
New Zealand women 147 for 2 in 15 overs (Suzie Bates 93) beat Pakistan women 144 in 46.5 overs ( Sana Mir 50, HM Rowe 3/22) by 8 wickets
Captain Mithali Raj said: It was a disappointing performance by our players. We chased against South Africa in the qualifiers. Lee wicket was an important won but credit to her batting which put us under pressure. We have to play our best cricket against Australia in the next match.
Player of the match Dane Van Niekerk said: Lee played great innings. It was not a resounding win but the win is a win. She dominated the Indian bowlers and the hitting came off.
Indian women play their next match against Australia on 12th July at County Ground, Bristol.
