India women’s cricket team picked up their second straight warm-up win ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup which gets underway on Thursday in the UAE. India’s batters played a key role in the 28-run win over South Africa women in Dubai. India had earlier posted a 20-run win over the West Indies.
Smriti Mandhana (21 from 22), Harmanpreet Kaur (10 from 11), Jemimah Rodrigues (30 from 26), Deepti Sharma (35* from 29) and Richa Ghosh (36 from 25) all played a part as India put together 144/7 against a strong South African bowling attack.
Ayabonga Khaka bagged five wickets in her four overs to finish with exceptional figures of 5/25, picking up three wickets in her final over of the innings to deny India a bigger finish.
But the second innings saw India’s bowlers take their turn to keep things tight. The lines were drawn at the very beginning as Renuka Singh opened with a maiden over and India women kept the Proteas well behind the rate.
The Indian pacer went for just 16 runs from her four overs, while Deepti and Harmanpreet conceded just three runs from their combined three overs, each picking up a wicket too.
South African openers Laura Wolvaardt (29 from 26) and Tazmin Brits (22 from 25) did manage to build a partnership, but the middle order were tied down by India’s spinners, leaving far too much to do for Chloe Tryon (24 from 20) and Annerie Dercksen (21* from 16) down the order.
The chase closed on 166/6 after 20 overs, still 28 runs shy of the target.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-captained India will get their Women’s T20 World Cup campaign underway on 4 October against New Zealand. They will then face Pakistan (6 October), Sri Lanka (9 October) and Australia (13 October).
