The 5th ODI between India women and South Africa women ended up in the visitors winning the match and dominantly winning the series as well. The whole series was played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
South Africa Women captain Sune Luus won the toss and elected to field first. South Africa decided to rest their best batswoman in Lizelle Lee for this game, having an unassailable lead in the series already.
India also made quite a few changes, giving a debut to Challuru Prathyusha and bringing in Monica Patel, the left-arm seamer.
Indian women couldn’t manage to get the disciplined South African bowlers away and only Mithali Raj with 79* with 8 fours and 1 six went past the 30-run mark. Harmanpreet Kaur made 30, while Priya Punia and Smriti Mandhana made 18 runs each.
India managed just 188 in 49.3 overs.
Nadine de Klerk picked 3/35, while Nondumiso Shangase and Tumi Sekhukhune picked two wickets each.
In reply, Rajeshwari Gayakwad gave India the best possible start by removing Laura Wolvaardt for a duck and Lara Goodall for 1, while Hemalatha removed Sune Luus for 10 runs. However, Anneke Bosch (58) and Mignon du Preez (57) added 96 runs for the 4th wicket to put Proteas women back on track.
Though Gayakwad and Prathyusha removed both Bosch and Du Preez, experienced Marizanne Kapp (36*) along with Nadine de Klerk (19*) took the South African women past the finishing line.
South Africa ended up with 189/5 in 48.2 overs. They also won the 5-match ODI series 4-1. Anneke Bosch was named the Player of the Match and Lizelle Lee was given the Player of the Series award.
BRIEF SCORES:
INDW 188 ( M RAJ 79*; N DE KLERK 3/35) lost to SAW (A BOSCH 58, M DU PREEZ 57; R GAYAKWAD 3/13) by 5 wickets
South African women won the series 4-1.
