Navi Mumbai: The last time India and South Africa met in the World Cup in Visakhapatnam in the league phase, the contest was settled by two No.8s. Nadine de Klerk’s spectacular 84* overpowered Richa Ghosh’s counter-attacking 94. It is not always in a major ODI competition that the lower-middle order has a big role to play. It’s been that sort of a tournament where, although it has been mostly high scoring, the batting depth of the fancied teams has been truly tested.
Expect it to be no different when the two best teams out of eight after 32 days and 30 face-offs clash to be crowned first-time World Cup winners.
India’s openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal (out injured) have scored big, while Laura Wolvaardt has done the heavy lifting for South Africa. But not without de Klerk and Ghosh’s crucial counterpunching would the teams have made it to the final.
There are parallels to be drawn in the career of the two allrounders - de Klerk a medium-pacer who can bat, and Ghosh a stumper who has become India’s best bet with power-hitting prowess.
Both were spotted early, and are tipped to scale great heights. De Klerk went to the 2017 ODI World Cup as a 17-year-old. She did not get a game but used it to learn and grow. Quite the same way, Ghosh was yet to turn 18 when she made her India white-ball debut.
Their pathway to international honours was a striking contrast though. De Klerk, born in South Africa capital Pretoria, was a multi-skilled athlete. She could play hockey and throw the javelin before discovering how good she was at cricket. Siliguri-born Ghosh did not even have a girls cricket team to play in. Surmounting financial hurdles and rising through the ranks underlined her classic beat-the-odds Indian success story. She may not have made it in cricket without her father Manabendra’s sacrifices.
{{/usCountry}}Their pathway to international honours was a striking contrast though. De Klerk, born in South Africa capital Pretoria, was a multi-skilled athlete. She could play hockey and throw the javelin before discovering how good she was at cricket. Siliguri-born Ghosh did not even have a girls cricket team to play in. Surmounting financial hurdles and rising through the ranks underlined her classic beat-the-odds Indian success story. She may not have made it in cricket without her father Manabendra’s sacrifices.
{{/usCountry}}Upmarket Pretoria and tea and timber town Siliguri will be keenly watching if their representative can make it count on the big day. They two certainly did in the last World Cup clash at Visakhapatnam. India, batting first, were reduced to 102/6 before Ghosh came into bat. Teeing off in style using her power, the 22-year-old helped India post 251, only to be upstaged by De Klerk’s heroics. The South African arrived with the team in an even more desperate situation - 142/6 with over seven runs per over to get. Both may have watched the highlights capsule on loop to draw inspiration.
The contributions of Ghosh and de Klerk have been wide-ranging. The Indian’s power strokes stood out against Pakistan (20-ball 35*), and against Australia in the league stage (22-ball 32) and the semis (16-ball 26). De Klerk backed up her showing against India by delivering another clutch knock (37*) against Bangladesh. She also scored a 16-ball 41 against Pakistan in addition to her vital spells bowling medium pace.
De Klerk knows to celebrate too as she showed after silencing the crowd in Vizag. “I love a celebration. Even when I get No.11 out,” she told SuperSport. There will be no stopping her if she can repeat the dose in Navi Mumbai at the grandest of stages. Ghosh though would believe it is payback time.