Brits blitz takes South Africa home in first T20I

Chandigarh: After being whitewashed in the ODI series 3-0 along with the defeat in the solitary Test, South Africa women recorded their first win on the Indian tour by beating hosts in the first T20I in Chennai on Friday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

With this 12-run win, South Africa women showed they could conquer in the shortest format. While this T20I series is a preparation for the touring SA team ahead of the T20 World Cup to be held in Bangladesh in October, India will look forward to the second T20I tie on Sunday and go into the T20 Asia Cup — beginning July 19 in Sri Lanka — on a high.

Jemimah Rogrigues’ fighting unbeaten 53 off 30 balls did raise India’s hopes with captain Harmanpreet Kaur (35 off 29) on the other end. But her innings went in vain as India fell short. With 21 need off the last six balls and the crowd cheering on the duo, spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba bowled well to help SA pull off the win.

Earlier, asked to bat first, SA took the chance with both hands and posted an impressive 189/4 in 20 overs with opener Tazmin Brits smashing 81 off 56 balls at a strike-rate of 144 and seasoned Marizanne Kapp contributing 57 off 33 to prop up the visitors.

Captain Laura Wolvaardt also played well scoring 33 off 22. SA batters showed urgency and intent to score at a brisk rate. Indian bowlers struggled to stop SA batters from scoring at a quick rate. Pooja Vastrakar was the pick of the bowlers claiming two wickets in her four overs, giving 23 runs. India missed Chennai Test victory star Sneh Rana in the T20 team as spinners did not find form and were expensive. Left-arm spinner Radha Yadav took two wickets but leaked 40 runs. Indian fielders were also off-colour, dropping catches and misfielding to give extra runs.

In reply, Indian openers Shafali Verma (18) and Smriti Mandhana (46) gave India a flying start stitching a partnership of 56 runs in 5.2 overs.

Ayabonga Khaka removed Verma to give SA the first breakthrough. Chloe Tryon made a successful comeback to cricket after a back injury by taking the prized wicket of Mandhana in the 10th over. Dayalan Hemalatha could make 14 and later Kaur and Rodrigues tried to get to the target but in vain.