India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 1st Women’s T20I: Pacer Shabnim Ismail And All-Rounder Anneke Bosch Guide South Africa Women For Series-Leading Victory

Visitors South Africa Women have continued their recent great form in Women’s T20I too as they beat the hosts India Women in the first game of the three-match series by 8 wickets.

After the visitors sent the hosts to bat first, India Women scored 130/6 in 20 overs. Later, South Africa Women chased down the target in 19.1 overs after losing two wickets.

India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 1st Women’s T20I

2nd innings (South Africa Women): Anneke Bosch and Sune Luus put the big 2nd wicket partnership

India Women bowlers once again failed to take regular wickets in the opening game of this Women’s T20I series too. Though Arundhati Reddy dismissed Lizelle Lee for just 8 runs in the third over of that innings, another opener Anneke Bosch and captain Sune Luus set up the game with 90 runs partnership for the second wicket.

Though Harleen Deol took the wicket of Luus for 43 runs off 49 balls (5 fours and only six), it couldn’t break the visitors’ confidence anyway. Bosch remained not out on 66 runs off 48 balls (9 fours and only six) while Laura Wolvaardt lately scored 9 not out as South Africa Women chased the target with 5 balls remaining.

1st innings (India Women): Harleen Deol and Jemimah Rodrigues set up a strong partnership

Indian Women’s stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana (11) was dismissed early in the second over as in-form Shabnim Ismail provided the first breakthrough for the visitors. Another opener Shafali Verma and Harleen Deol put the 45 runs partnership for the second wicket where Verma was stumped out after scoring 23 runs.

Then Harleen and Jemimah Rodrigues put the crucial 60 runs partnership for the third wicket. Both were dismissed by Anneke Bosch in the 18th over as Harleen scored 52 off 47 balls (6 fours) and 30 off 27 balls (3 fours). Their late wickets were the reason for the hosts to fail the challenging first innings total.

On the final two balls of that innings, Shabnim Ismail got two wickets by dismissing Richa Ghosh (5) and Arundhati Reddy (1) as her final bowling figures of the match were 4-0-14-3. Also, Anneke Bosch had bowling figures of 2-0-11-2.

Brief Scores: India Women – 130/6 in 20 overs (Harleen Deol 52, Jemimah Rodrigues 30; Shabnim Ismail 3/14)

South Africa Women – 133/2 in 19.1 overs (Anneke Bosch 66*, Sune Luus 43; Arundhati Reddy 1/20)

Result – South Africa Women won by 8 wicket