South Africa beat India by 5 wickets in the final of the Women’s T20 Tri-Series in South Africa in what was a low-scoring contest at the Buffalo Park, East London. While the visitors had opted to bat first, they got off to a poor start losing both their openers within the first 7 overs with just 21 runs on the board.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s innings did provide some kind of impetus to the innings but realising that she was running short of balls, she became a little overambitious and lost her wicket. In the end, Harleen Deol’s gritty innings of 46 from 56 balls coupled with Deepti Sharma’s unbeaten 14-ball 16- the only Indian batter to score at a strike rate of over 100, India managed to post 109/4 on an absolute spinner’s paradise.
Nonkululeko Mlaba, Ayabonga Khaka and Sune Luus were the wicket-takers for the home team.
Chloe Tryon’s maiden half-century spoils India’s plans
Needing 110 to win, South Africa did not have the best of starts either as they lost their first wicket at the score of 7 in just the 3rd over. The side had not even recovered before Tazmin Brits and Lara Goodall followed Laura Wolvaardt back into the pavilion with the scoreboard reeling at 21/3.
Post this though, South Africa skipper Luus along with Chloe Tryon had a bit of a partnership adding 26 crucial runs for the 4th wicket but the captain departed just after the drinks break, falling prey to Renuka Singh in only the second over of pace bowling in the innings.
Despite wickets continuing to fall on the other end, Tryon played some flamboyant strokes and perhaps was the best batter on the day from both the sides. She targetted her bowlers pretty well and waited for the quicker bowlers to find the boundaries before also finding her groove against the spinners.
The 29-year-old’s maiden half-century (57*) and a quickfire counter-attacking partnership with Nadine de Klerk eventually took South Africa over the line with 12 balls to spare. Sneh Rana was the pick of the bowlers for India while Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Deepti Sharma and Renuka Thakur Singh scalped a wicket each for India but it wasn’t enough on the day.
