South Africa won the toss and chose to bat with the captain, Laura Wolvaardt once again playing a captain’s innings.  She scored 61 off 57 balls, before being caught and bowled by Arundhati Reddy.  Together with Tazmin Brits, the pair put together 102 runs off 119 balls for the opening wicket.

Veterans Marizanne Kapp and Anneke Bosch could only add 12 runs between the two of them, both caught and bowled – Kapp by Shreyanka Patil for 7 and Bosch by Reddy for 5.  The only other South African innings of note came courtesy of Nadine de Klerk (26 off 46) and Mieke de Ridder (26 not out). The Protea women scored 215/8 in their 50 overs, which was never going to be enough against the Women in Blue.

A brilliant 90 off 83 balls by Smriti Mandhana set India up for a strong performance against South Africa, before being caught by Ayabonga Khaka off the bowling of Nonkululeko Mlaba.  A solid 28 and 25 by Shefali Verma and Priya Punia respectively, kept the scoreboard ticking along nicely for the hosts. 

India’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues calmly kept at it, chipping away at South Africa’s score, easily getting the required runs in the 40th over.

The teams will next face each other on Friday in the only Test match in the series.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger