The commentary is not available for this match. Please check the scorecard for latest updates.
Thank you very much for joining our team here at Sportskeeda for the first T20I between India Women and South Africa Women in Chennai. The latter won their first game of their tour by beating the hosts by 12 runs on this occasion and will be keen on carrying this momentum further into the rest of the series. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did bringing it to you. Until next time, take care and goodnight!
Tazmin Brits (Player of the Match): I may have got the runs, but I am not too happy with myself. I think I was trying to hit the ball too hard in the beginning and perhaps letting my teammates down. I have a bit of a cramp in my leg, so let us hope it gets well quickly. I have not had a good tour so far, but this win was important for us. We have a very good team.
Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa Women captain): We are very happy. It is a special win coming after a tough three weeks. We showed the signs in the Test match but this result shows that we are doing the right things behind the scenes. We would have liked to chase, but batting first worked for us today. We will have to take a call as to whether we want to do it in the next match as well. Cricket is a funny game, and it was quite exciting today.
Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women captain): We did not play good cricket. They bowled very well. They did not give us easy runs at all. It was also because of the dot balls that we played that pushed us. If we had been more aware of our strengths, we could have been able to push for victory. With the start we got with the bat, we hoped that we would be able to get over the line. We will sit together and discuss what we need to do now.
Marizanne Kapp: It took much longer than we would have liked, but heading into a World Cup, we are happy. I don't really know; I think I put them (sweep, slog shots) away for some reason. It came off very nicely today. We have been speaking about being positive. Somehow, we have got out being conservative earlier but today everything came off well. It was a brilliant innings by Tazmin (Brits). She struggled in the beginning but did well towards the end.
Despite Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues' best efforts to do so, India Women were thwarted for the win by South Africa Women eventually. The latter won their first game on this tour and did so in a convincing manner.
India will take a lot of learnings from this game, but the lack of cohesion that Harmanpreet showed in the middle seemed to add to their misery. However, they will be pleased with the fact that they came very close to chasing it down thanks largely to the fireworks coming off Rodrigues' bat.
South Africa will be boosted with the confidence that they have gained from this game and hope to carry it forward into the rest of the series. As mentioned earlier, this game provided India with a lot of learnings, especially on the field where they dropped plenty of catches.
This allowed the SA batters to creep up and put up a mammoth total on the board. India's bowling too was not up to the mark today and they conceded far too many loose deliveries for their opponents to capitalise upon.
That will be that then!
20
overs
177/4score
4
2
1
1
0
w
runs
Harmanpreet Kaur*
35(29)
Jemimah Rodrigues
53(30)
Nonkululeko Mlaba
1/32
19.6 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Harmanpreet Kaur, OUT! STUMPED! SOUTH AFRICA WIN! Finally a win on the tour for South Africa and they go 1-0 up in the series. Tossed up a length delivery on the stumps, Kaur shimmies down the track, has a big swing and a misses as it straightened. Kaur doesn't bother getting back and Jafta collects and whips the bails off.
19.5 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Harmanpreet Kaur, OH! Short outside the off-stump, Kaur smashes it but straight to extra-cover for a dot.
19.4 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Jemimah Rodrigues, good length delivery on the off-stump, Rodrigues with a slog sweep, doesn't get hold of it and goes to the fielder at deep mid-wicket on the bounce for one.
Mlaba goes wide and nails it perfectly!
19.3 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Harmanpreet Kaur, OH! Well bowled, exceptional from Mlaba. Spots the batter using the feet again, fired it wide of off-stump. Kaur had to reach and squirts it into the off-side for just one.
India would have hoped for a boundary here! 15 off 4 now!
19.2 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Harmanpreet Kaur, OH DEAR! Uses her feet again, Kaur has a wild swing at the length delivery but that straightens and takes the outside edge past the keeper, they scamper back for the couple.
Excellent use of the feet by the skipper!
19.1 Nonkululeko Mlaba to Harmanpreet Kaur, FOUR! SHOT! Excellent start to the over. Kaur shimmies down the track for the length delivery, smashes it down to long-on and the fielder can't gather in time and it's a boundary.
Nonkululeko Mlaba [3-0-21-0] is back into the attack.
A strong finish to this over from Khaka! India need 21 runs off the last over now. Harmanpreet is not able to strike the ball too well but Rodrigues has already scored her half-century off 29 balls!
19
overs
169/3score
4
4
1
1
2
6
runs
Jemimah Rodrigues*
52(29)
Harmanpreet Kaur
28(24)
Ayabonga Khaka
1/39
18.6 Ayabonga Khaka to Jemimah Rodrigues, SIX! BAM! FIFTY FOR RODRIGUES! What a time to hit a six, what a shot and what an innings this has been from Rodrigues, keeping the hopes alive with that magnificent strike. Length delivery, Khaka spraying it on the leg-stump, Rodrigues walks down the track and sweeps it all the way over fine-leg boundary for a maximum.
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Harmanpreet Kaur
*
Nonkululeko Mlaba
Video
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