Kolkata: An unbeaten 127-run stand between skipper Mithali Raj and opener Punam Raut saw the India women comfortably chase down the South African total of 156, and clinch the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Quadrangular series in Potchefstroom on Sunday after Jhulan Goswami and Poonam Yadav bowled quality spells, sharing six wickets between them.
Opener Andrie Steyn was dismissed early in the innings but her partner Sun Luus fought her way to 55 of 74 balls in her 50th game for South Africa. Du Preez (30) later joined her and stitched a 73 run stand before the former’s stay at the crease was ended by Shikha Pandey. At one stage their scoreboard read 117/4 but a dramatic collapse could help them reach just to 156 in 40.2 overs.
India while chasing suffered an early setback in the ninth over when opener Deepti Sharma was dismissed. But a third wicket successful partnership between skipper Mithali Raj (62*) ensured that there were no more jitters in the chase as India coasted home to an eight wicket win.
Chloe Tyron of the South African women’s team was obviously disappointed to lose the series but said that the team has got whatever they needed, right ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup which starts from next month.
“It’s been a good quadrangular series for us, I just like today didn’t show that, but we’ve definitely gotten what we wanted out of this tournament in terms of looking ahead to the bigger picture, which is preparation for the World Cup” she said.
Problem of plenty
The coach of the Proteas women’s team Hilton Moreeng was satisfied with the selection problems that his team has given him and the national selectors just ahead of the squad announcement for the World Cup this week.
It’s a good headache to have,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had this problem in women’s cricket in a really long time. It’s great to see players putting up their hands and demanding to be counted, it bodes well for the future and also for the World Cup itself.”
He further added, “From a series point of view, I’m happy with what we have achieved, today didn’t go as planned, but I’ve seen enough exciting performances from this team during this quadrangular to make me happy going into final discussions about the World Cup.”
The squad would be announced at Momentum’s head office in Centurion on Tuesday, 23 May.
(With inputs from agencies)