IND W vs SA W | Deepti Sharma bamboozles visitors with spin as India take 1-0 lead
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India's Deepti Sharma produced a nearly flawless spell of spin bowling on Tuesday to spin a web around South Africa Women and give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the series. After putting up a par score of 130 batting first, the Indian Women strangled the visitors and walked away with a 11-run victory.
Brief scores: INDW 130-8 (Harmanpreet Kaur 43 and Shabnim Ismail 3/26) beat SAW 119 all-out (Deepti Sharma 3/8 and Mignon du Preez 59)
After winning the toss and opting to bowl first, visitors South Africa got off to to the perfect start by dismissing 15-year-old debutant Shafali Verma in just the fourth ball of the innings. Smriti Mandhana (21), Jemimah Rodrigues (19), Deepti Sharma (16) and Veda Krishnamurthy (10) all got off to starts but none went on to convert as the visitors pegged India back with wickets at regular intervals. Shabnim Ismail (3/26) and Nadine de Klerk (2/10) were the destroyers in chief with the ball for South Africa Women, but a spirited 34-ball 43 from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took India to a defendable total of 130.
Chasing 131, South Africa Women got off to a flyer thanks to Lizelle Lee's (16) early blitz, but Shikha Pandey sent the opener packing at just the right time for the hosts. Then, in one of the most remarkable spells in T20 history, off-spinner Deepti Sharma bowled a scarcely believable three maidens in her spell and knocked over the visitors' middle-order to leave them reeling at 73/7. She ended up with figures of 4-3-8-3 and all but ensured that there was only one winner from this point on. However, a late cameo from Mignon du Preez (59) threatened South Africa Women to get back into the match, but Radha Yadav (2/29) cleaned things up towards the end by dismissing the last two batters in successive deliveries.
The result means that India go 1-0 up in the five-match T20I series, with still everything left to play for. The second T20I will again be played at the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium in Surat on Thursday.
