The Indian women’s team needed just one point more to qualify for the semi-finals of the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 in New Zealand when they faced off against South Africa in their final league match of the tournament at Christchurch on March 27.
Mithali Raj won the toss and decided to bat first. Smriti Mandhana (71) and Shafali Verma (55) added 91 runs in 15 overs for the opening wicket. After their wickets, Mithali Raj (68) and Harmanpreet Kaur (48) kept the Indian innings alive as they posted a final total of 274/7 in 50 overs.
Shabnim Ismail took 2/42 and Masabata Klaas took 2/38 for South Africa women.
IPL 2022: KL Rahul opens up on learnings from Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit’s captaincy
In reply, Laura Wolvaardt made 80 and Lara Goodall made 49, while Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp chipped in with 22 and 32 respectively. Indian spinners fought valiantly, both against SA batters and dew, and took the game to the last over. Rajeshwari Gayakwad took 2/61, while Harmanpreet Kaur took 2/42.
Deepti Sharma bowled the final over with South Africa needing 7 runs to win. Trisha Chetty took a single off the first ball but got run out on the second ball thanks to some swift work by Harmanpreet Kaur. However, South Africa still had Mignon du Preez at the crease and the equation came down to 3 runs off 2 balls.
However, tragedy struck as Deepti Sharma bowled a no-ball on the fifth ball of the 50th over. The unfortunate thing was that Du Preez was caught by Harmanpreet Kaur of this delivery, but survived due to the no-ball and received a free hit as well.
Getting a reprieve, Du Preez achieved the 2 runs needed off the last 2 balls to take South Africa to the victory with 3 wickets in hand.
With this loss, India was knocked out of the Women’s World Cup 2022, while West Indies qualified, joining Australia, South Africa, and England in the final four. Australia will face West Indies in the 1st semi-final, while South Africa will clash with England in the second knockout match.
This was a sad end to India’s campaign in the Women’s World Cup 2022, as there were many hopes from Mithali Raj and her girls, especially given that this was possibly the last big ICC event for veterans Mithali and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami and they might have looked for triumphant farewell.
In the aftermath, the cricket fraternity took to Twitter and reacted to the exit of the Indian team from the Women’s World Cup.
Here are the tweets:
