AGENCY
COLOMBO: South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail looks back as she is bowled out, as India’s Sushma Verma celebrates during their ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier final one-day international cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. AP/PTI
Harmanpreet Kaur blasted a six in the penultimate delivery to power India to a one-wicket win over South Africa in a last-ball thriller at the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier Final at P Sara Oval here today.
Needing nine off six balls, Indian women were staring at defeat when they lost Poonam Yadav (7) in the first delivery but Harmanpreet plundered Letsoalo over deep midwicket to bring India back on the chase and sealed the win with a couple of runs in the last ball of the over.
Chasing 245 to win, Opener Mona Meshram (59) and Deepti Sharma (71) were the star players for India as they added 122-run innings for the first wicket to lay the foundation for the runchase. Earlier, Rajeshwari Gayakwad (3/51) claimed three wickets in her nine overs, while S Pandey took two wickets to help India bowl out South Africa for 244 in 49.4 overs.
M du Preez (40) was the top-scorer for South Africa women, while van Niekerk (37) and L Lee (37) got starts but failed to consolidate into big scores.
Already assured of a place in this year’s Women’s World Cup, India continued their invincible run at the tournament after overhauling the target in the last over. In reply to South Africa’s 244, India lost opener Thirush Kamini (10) early in the eighth over but Meshram and Sharma stitched a 122-run innings for the first wicket to help India recover. In the end, it was Harmanpreet’s heroics that helped India seal the issue.
South Africa had defeated India in a practice match
ahead of this tournament but the latter prevailed in their fixture in the tournament proper, winning by 49 runs in the Super Six stage.
score board
South Africa innings
L Lee c †Verma b Pandey 37
L Wolvaardt c & b Poonam Yadav 21
M du Preez c Poonam Yadav b Bisht 40
T Chetty† run out (Krishnamurthy) 22
CL Tryon b Sharma 23
D van Niekerk* c Kaur b Pandey 37
M Kapp c Krishnamurthy b Gayakwad 14
S Luus run out (Bisht/†Verma) 35
S Ismail b Gayakwad 05
A Khaka b Gayakwad 01
MM Letsoalo not out 03
Extras 06
Total 244/10
India innings
MR Meshram b van Niekerk 59
MDT Kamini c van Niekerk b Kapp 10
DB Sharma c Wolvaardt b Letsoalo 71
V Krishnamurthy c †Chetty b Kapp 31
H Kaur* not out 41
S Pandey run out (Lee/Khaka) 12
DP Vaidya b Khaka 00
S Verma† b Ismail 00
E Bisht b Khaka 06
Poonam Yadav run out (Tryon/Letsoalo) 07
RS Gayakwad not out 00
Extras 08
Total 245/9
