India Women Fall To South Africa In 5th T20I, Suffer Heavy 4-1 Series Defeat

An explosive 92 from skipper Laura Woolvardt and some sensational bowling from South Africa propelled the hosts to a 23-run win over India in the final T20I at Benoni on Monday.

With this win, South Africa has taken the series in a thumping fashion by 4-1. Wolvaardt has been declared the 'Player of the Series' for top-scoring with 330 runs in five innings at an average of 82.50, with a strike rate of 168.36, including a century and three fifties, while the other batters struggled to even reach 200.

SA won the toss and elected to bat first. Wolvaardt put on a 75-run opening stand with Sune Luus (23 in 23 balls, with two fours and a six). But Shree Charani and Deepti Sharma reduced SA to 82/3, getting Luus, Tazmin Brits (2), Annerie Dercksen (0) in quick succession.

Later on, double-digit cameos came from Chloe Tryon (12 in 10 balls) and Sinalo Jafta (16* in eight balls, with two fours), with the skipper Wolvaardt unbeaten at 92* in 56 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes.

Shree Charani (2/22), Deepti (2/37), Renuka Singh Thakur (2/21) were top class with the ball, reducing SA to 155/6 in 20 overs.
During the run-chase of 156 runs, India went down to 38/3 in 7.3 overs, with Shafali Varma (4), Anushka Sharma (17) and Jemimah Rodrigues (1) falling quickly.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (22 in 22 balls, with two fours) put on a 38-run stand with Bharti Fulmali, taking the game in positive direction for India. But dismissal of Bharti at score of 40 in 30 balls, with three fours and two sixes at score of 99 as the fifth wicket swung back things in SA's favour. India needed 57 runs in 27 balls.

Richa Ghosh (25* in 15 balls, with three fours and a six) delivered an important cameo, but did not find enough support, restricting India to 132/8.

Nonkululeko Mlaba (2/15) and Nadine de Klerk (2/26) were the top bowlers for SA.