MATCH REPORT
Follow UsThe start of the match hinted at a riveting contest between the two sides. By the end of it, however, it turned into a tame affair which witnessed the visitors, South Africa women, register an easy 8-wicket win in the first Women’s ODI in Lucknow.
India women took the field after a span of 364 days and the lack of match practice was clearly visible. With the bat, they lost wickets at important junctures. With the ball, they were toothless. South Africa women, on the other hand, had clean swept Pakistan in both ODI and T20I series last month and the spontaneity was there for everyone to see.
The false start
Put in to bat, India’s start suggested a score much bigger than the eventual 177. Jemimah Rodrigues got the innings underway on the first ball itself, with a confident push off the front foot to wide of mid-off. Next ball, Smriti Mandhana made it even better, caressing the ball through the off side for a boundary. She also pulled Shabnim Ismail on the fourth ball of the over, hinting that South Africa may have made a mistake to have asked India to make first use of the pitch. Another boundary by Mandhana to begin the next over almost confirmed that theory.
However, South Africa’s experienced pace attack weighed in quickly. India had to wait for 45 balls for their next boundary. In between, they lost both openers. Mandhana threw her wicket away - poking at a delivery wide outside the off-stump - to Ayabonga Khaka in the fifth over. Next over, it was Marizanne Kapp’s turn. Bowling at the stumps paid dividends for her when Rodrigues failed to counter the seam movement. The ball straightened at a good pace and the right-handed batter edged the ball to Lizelle Lee, who took a sharp catch at gully. This 45-ball period also brought only 8 runs.
It was Mithali Raj’s class that broke the long wait for a boundary. After nine dot balls, she drove Khaka for a boundary to get off the mark which had three players chasing but none getting close. She, alongside Punam Raut, appeared set to resurrect India until Raut pulled one straight down the throat of Khaka at fine-leg in the 14th over. Her dismissal (10 off 29 balls) handed Ismail her first wicket after a lacklustre first spell.
The brief partnerships
With the conditions getting better and two of their best batters having come together - Mithali and Harmanpreet Kaur - India had a much better second set of 15 overs in their innings which produced 75 runs at the cost of one wicket. Although, that one wicket had a long lasting impact in the game which is always the case when the batter is Harmanpreet.
The two added 62 runs for the fourth wicket and as long as Harman was in the middle, the pressure was on the visitors. She did most of the scoring - a sumptuous back foot punch against Kapp early in the innings, back-to-back boundaries against Nadine de Klerk and three boundaries against Nonkuleleko Mbala. Dominating the spinners, the duo picked up 46 runs from nine overs between Mbala and Sune Luus.
However, you live by the sword and you die by it. Harman charged down the track against Luus’ leg-spin in the 26th over but this time, found the long-off fielder. This was the first aerial shot of Harman’s innings and she perished or a well-made 40 off 41 balls.
Deepti Sharma, in at six, provided a solid support thereafter to add another 52 runs to India’s total. But every time India seemed to make progress, they lost a wicket.
The big slip-up
Mithali, a ball after reaching the 54th fifty of her career, fell to Shabnim in the 39th over. The more unsettling aspect of the dismissal was the fact that it came off a full toss. Mithali drove a wide and low full toss straight to the point fielder. Next over, Deepti lost her leg-stump to Mbala.
The stop-start innings came to a complete halt after these two dismissals. You generally want to have as many wickets as possible while entering this phase but India lost two set batters. Moreover, South Africa reached the lower order of India’s batting.
The last 10 overs brought only 21 runs but India must have been happy to bat through their overs. Mbala, who had bowling figures of 7-0-31-0 until she hit the timber of Deepti, conceded only 10 runs in her last three overs while picking two wickets. Ismail recovered from 2-0-11-0 to finish with 3 for 28. India paid the price for timid dismissals of Mandhana, Harman and Mithali. They scored 104 runs between them but a lot more was expected from India’s big three when each one of them looked in good touch.
Overall, none of the first three South Africa bowlers - Ismail, Kapp and Khaka - conceded at more than 3 runs an over while picking five wickets between them.
The Wolvaardt-Lee show
Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt are historically the second most productive opening pair in women ODIs. Today, they stretched the gap between them and Suzie Bates-Rachel Priest by further 169 runs.
It was a chanceless partnership which flattened the spirits of Indians bowlers. The first 15 overs produced 12 boundaries - four leg-byes and four byes aside. Both the batters had six fours each. Similarly, both spin and pace were taken away for six fours. Five of these six boundaries against pacers came through the off-side which speaks about the lack of control by Indian bowlers. Debutant left-arm seamer, Monica Patel extracted swing with the new ball but most of her deliveries would be more threatening to the left-handers.
Both the batters went about their business in an unhurried fashion. This can be assessed by the fact that Lee, normally an attacking batter, took 84 balls to reach her fifty, which was notched up with the first six of her and South Africa’s innings. At that time, Wolvaardt was already batting on 57, having completed her fifty from 70 balls.
When a 10-wicket win was in sight - it would have been the highest run-chase for a 10-wicket win in Women ODIs - umpire Nandan made an error in judgement on Jhulan Goswami’s LBW call against Wolvaardt (80 from 110 balls). Luus, in at three, was out for 1 to lessen the margin. But with the target razed off with 59 balls to spare, it was still a massive win to kick off the tour for South Africa.