India women seek winning return to T20 cricket

The hosts would like to take inspiration from that game following their recent losses as they face the same opposition in a three-match T20I series starting at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Stadium here on Saturday.

The last time the Indian women’s cricket team played South Africa in a T20 contest, the former earned a thrilling 11-run victory during the 2019 home series. The hosts would like to take inspiration from that game following their recent losses as they face the same opposition in a three-match T20I series starting at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Stadium here on Saturday.

File image of Mithali Raj. (Twitter)

But they will have to show a lot of courage as skipper Hamanpreet Kaur has been ruled out of the opening game due to an injury. Kaur suffered a hip-flexor injury while batting in the fifth ODI against the same opponents on Wednesday. “She is out of tomorrow's match and rest of the update on her condition will be given by the medical team," left-handed opener Smriti Mandhana said of the captain on the eve of the match on Friday.

The hosts lost the five-match ODI series 1-4 to the Proteas. They had also gone down in their last T20I, which was an 85-run loss to Australia in the World Cup final at Melbourne in March 2020. After that game, the sporting world went into Covid-19 lockdown. Barring a few, who played exhibition matches in the UAE on the sidelines of IPL 2020, others hardly got any game time.

In the ODI series, the Sune Luus-led side outplayed India in all departments which helped them jump to second, behind Australia, in the ODI rankings and push India to fourth. Barring a few highlights—Mithali Raj’s 10,000 international runs, Kaur’s 100 ODI appearances, Punam Raut’s unbeaten century and a nine-wicket win in the second game, India did not have much to boast about.

With the ODI series behind them, India would like to start afresh. India are currently third, behind table-toppers Australia and England, and will try their best to keep South Africa in fifth in the T20 world rankings even though the Proteas are coming in with a 2-1 series win against Pakistan on their home turf.

Rustiness is unlikely to be an issue for India as most players were part of the ODI. The presence of young Shafali Verma, who had an amazing T20 World Cup last year, will be a big boost for the side.

Star opener Mandhana had just one good innings to show in the ODI series and will need to step up. “She (Mandhana) wasn’t playing her shots freely due to the team’s situation, but now she is expected to pick shots of her choice,” former India skipper Anjum Chopra said.

Two other batters—Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh—will look to make use of their chances to show their skills in the middle-order. The success of left-arm orthodox spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad in the last ODI, where she bagged 3/13 taking her overall tally to eight wickets in five matches, has also been a big boost to India.

Experienced leggie Poonam Yadav and spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma, who were dropped from the fifth ODI after their lacklustre show, would also aim to exploit the conditions under the lights.

In the absence of veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, who finished with eight wickets in the ODI series, young fast bowlers Arundhati Reddy, Manshi Joshi, Monica Patel and Simran Dil Bahadur will have to shoulder responsibility, especially against a strong South African batting line-up which includes opener Lizelle Lee (288 runs in ODIs).

Besides Lee, Mignon du Preez (166 runs) and Laura Wolvaardt (154 runs) would also test the Indian bowlers. In their attack, South Africa have a rich combination of Ismail (seven wickets), Tumi Sekhukhune (fives), Marizanne Kapp (three) and Nadine de Klerk (three).