India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 1st Women’s ODI – Match Preview And Prediction

India Women will host South Africa Women for the first game of the three-match Women’s ODI series at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium (Lucknow) on Sunday (7th March) morning.

It will be their first meeting in international cricket since October 2019. Both teams are desperate to make a positive start in this fresh series by claiming a good victory.

India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 1st Women’s ODI – Match Preview

India Women

India Women are finally getting ready to return to the international match. It will be their first game in international cricket in a year, who last time appeared in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 final where they suffered a heart-breaking thrashing defeat against Australia Women. Since then, their major cricket activity was the Women’s T20 Challenge 2020.

India Women will begin this series with a strong squad, where Shikha Pandey is one of the few big names that is missing along with Taniya Bhatia, Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht and Anuja Patil. Sushma Verma, who last played an international match in April 2018, has returned to both limited-overs squads.

Swetha Verma, Yastika Bhatia, C Prathyusha and Monica Patel are the uncapped players in this latest ODI squad.

Full Squad

Mithali Raj (C), Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), D. Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Sushma Verma (wk), Swetha Verma (wk), Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Poonam Yadav, C. Prathyusha, Monica Patel

South Africa Women

After the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa Women have just played two limited-overs series at home, both against Pakistan Women, where the hosts won both those ODI and T20I series by the 3-0 and 2-1 margins respectively.

In that home ODI series against Pakistan Women, Laura Wolvaardt scored the second most runs (125 runs in three games, including one half-century) while Marizanne Kapp was their other batter who scored a fifty in that series (115 runs in two matches). Meanwhile, Ayabonga Khaka (2 matches) and Shabnim Ismail (3 matches) both got 7 wickets each in that series.

Full Squad

Sune Luus (C), Ayabonga Khaka, Shabnim Ismail, Laura Wolvaardt, Trisha Chetty, Sinalo Jafta, Tasmin Britz, Marizanne Kapp, Nondumiso Shangase, Lizelle Lee, Anneke Bosch, Faye Tunnicliffe, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Mignon du Preez, Nadine de Klerk, Lara Goodall, Tumi Sekhukhune

India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 1st Women’s ODI – Match Prediction

India Women have good records against South Africa Women in every international formats. In Women’s ODIs, India Women have won 14 times while South Africa Women have won 7 times. But South Africa recenlty have played some international matches at home while India Women haven’t played an international match for a year.

So, it is a good time for the visitors Proteas to make improvement in their ODI records against the Indian team.