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ToggleOn Wednesday (17th March), the hosts India Women will face the visitors South Africa Women in the fifth or last game of the five-match Women’s ODI series at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium (Lucknow).
South Africa Women are currently leading this series by the 3-1 margin. While India Women won the second match by 9 wickets, South Africa Women won the first game by 8 wickets and the last two matches by 6 runs (DLS method) and 7 wickets respectively.
India Women vs South Africa Women 2021, 5th Women’s ODI – Match Preview
India Women
Despite India Women have already lost this ODI series, they will still put equal importance to the last game of this series as a victory is very important for their confidence.
Punam Raut is currently in great form in this series as she has scored 253 runs in four innings with an average of 126.50. Her scores in this series are 10, 62*, 77 and 104*. Meanwhile, captain Mithali Raj, vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur and opener Smriti Mandhana have also scored one half-century each in this series.
Pacer Jhulan Goswami is the leading wicket-taker in this series with 8 wickets in three games, who missed the last game. Also, Rajeshwari Gayakwad has taken 5 wickets in four matches and Mansi Joshi has got 3 wickets in three games. However, most of their bowlers have struggled to perform consistently, except Jhulan and Rajeshwari.
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
As South Africa Women have already secured this ODI series, they will target to finish this series in a stronger way by winning the last game too. However, they now have a good chance to utilise some of their other players.
Opener Lizelle Lee is the leading run-scorer in this series by scoring 288 runs in four games with an average of 144. Her scores in this series are 83*, 4, 132* and 69. Also, another opener Laura Wolvaardt, who led the team in the last two games in the absence of the skipper Sune Luus, has scored 80, 9, 12 and 53 runs respectively in this series.
In the last game, Lara Goodall and Mignon du Preez also scored the fifties as they scored 59 not out and 61 runs respectively. Earlier, in this series, while Goodall once scored 49 runs in the second game, Preez scored 37 runs in the third match.
Pacer Shabnim Ismail has got 7 wickets in four matches while Tumi Sekhukhune has taken 3 wickets in two games in this ODI 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, 5th Women’s ODI – Match Prediction
If South Africa Women doesn’t choose to experiment much with the squad, they are favourite for the fifth ODI too.