Nadine de Klerk hit the daylights out of the Indian attack by a scintillating 84 run smash up as South Africa came from behind to pull off an incredible win to break India’s unbeaten run in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup as she brought the contest to a pitch hitting the third and fifth balls of the penultimate 49th over by Amanjot for sixes as with 12 needed off 12 balls in the Proteas 252 for 7, winning with 7 balls to spare chasing India’s 251 at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. It was a record fifth highest chase overall in world cup history.
South African Skipper Laura Wolvaardt played an undeterred match turning 70 when reduced to 5 for 81 to reachingg 142 for 6 from where Nadine De Klerk swooped down by her eagle like innings that took the game away from the Indians. Chloe Tryon’s 49 was the other steadying influence to South Africa crossing the line to the astonishment of a highly biased Indian tv commentators who had already hailed India the winners before the last ball was bowled.
India, put into bat were boosted by Richa Ghosh’s 94 off 77 and Sneh Rana 33 off 24 balls adding 88 runs toh bailing out India from a hopeless 102/6 as the top order wilted again including that of record-breaker Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and captain Harmanpreet Kaur.
Smriti Mandhana fell for 23 after she broke the record for the most runs made by a woman batter in a calendar year going past Belinda Clark’s tally of 970 runs, which she made in 1997, with a six off Ayabonga Khaka in the eighth over of the innings.
“South Africa 252 for 7 (De Klerk 84*, Wolvaardt 70, Rana 2-47) beat India 251 (Ghosh 94, Tryon 3-32, Kapp 2-45) by three wickets”