Smriti Mandhana spearheaded India’s charge against South Africa women in the opening match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The southpaw was the standout performer in the crushing 143-run win which helped the hosts take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
On the back of Smriti’s 117 and lower-order contributions from Deepti Sharma (37) and Pooja Vastrakar (31 n.o), India scored 265/8 in their 50 overs after Ayabonga Khaka’s three-fer.
Debutant Asha Sobhana also joined the party, scalping four wickets with her flight and spin to dismiss the visitors for 122 runs. The leg-spinner’s first wicket was Marizanne Kapp (24) in the 22nd over before she bagged the last three South African wickets to complete the rout in style.
After opting to bat first, the home team lost wickets regularly. They were five wickets down, including those of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (10), Shafali Verma (7) and Jemimah Rodrigues (17), before India reached the three-figure mark. While lower-order batters Deepti and Pooja came up with useful contributions, the onus continued to be on Smriti to take her team to a good total and she did not disappoint.
Brief scores: India women: 265/8 in 50 overs (Smriti Mandhana 117, Deepti Sharma 37, Pooja Vastrakar 31 n.o; Ayabonga Khaka 3-47, Masabata Klaas 2-51) beat South Africa women: 122 in 37.4 overs (Sune Luus 33, M Kaap 24; Deepti 2-10, Asha Sobhana 4-21).
