South Africa started their journey to the T20 World Cup with a confidence-boosting victory over India in the opening T20I in Chennai, following losses in the ODI series and the one-off Test.
Tazmin Brits, who opened the score with an innings of contrasts of 81, and Marizane Kapp added 96 runs in just 9.2 overs to lead South Africa to victory. Kapp chipped in with a solid 33-ball 57 as the visitors finished at 189 for 4.
Smriti Mandhana’s 30-ball 46 got India’s chase off to a good start, but Jemimah Rodrigues’ potent 29-ball half-century gave them ammunition after her dismissal.
“South Africa wins the India tour for the first time thanks to British and Kapp fifties.”
In the end, the target proved steep as South Africa’s spinners took advantage of the slow pitch and lack of dew. After threatening to pull off a heist when Rodrigues reduced the equation from 47 off 18 to 21 off six, India ultimately fell short by 12 runs.
In the third over, Laura Wolvaardt came out swinging and took Renuka Singh for sixteen runs. However, South Africa was unable to capitalise on that since the British were now having difficulty hitting the ball off the square.
It took 10 deliveries for the Brits to hit the mark, and Wolvaardt was forced to take more chances than she would have liked due to the mounting dots. In an attempt to sweep left-arm spinner Radha Yadav into acres of open space, she walked across to expose all three stumps in the eighth over, which proved to be her downfall and left South Africa 50 for 1.
Kapp started off by hitting two fours off of her first three balls, the first of which was an especially lovely inside-out drive over extra cover. However, she was also extremely fortunate to receive two reprieves in the tenth over.
When Kapp was on 11, Richa Ghosh first failed to hold onto a catch behind the stumps. Then, with the South African all-rounder on 11, Mandhana made a difficult catch at the long-off fence. With Kapp now free, the pressure on the British was eased after she had hobbled to a run-a-ball 25 at the 10-over stage.
During the Test match a few days ago between these two teams, Kapp had largely shelved her sweeps due to a back injury. However, Kapp showed different variations of her sweeps as her innings went on—the full-blooded ones, the paddles, the scoops, and even the reverse—during a 30-ball half-century that gave South Africa’s innings momentum, possibly indicating that she was feeling a lot better.
While Kapp went crazy at the other end of their near-century stand, the Brits broke the chains in the eleventh over when she heaved legspinner S Asha over the long-on boundary.
When she top-edged a slog, the Brits ought to have been out on fifty, but Ghosh stole the show. It would turn out to be somewhat of a game-changer as Ghosh, who was struck on her chin by the ball that rebounded off her gloves, was declared out of the remainder of the match with a concussion.
The Brits didn’t find their best form until the 17th over of the innings, when she hit two consecutive sixes off Radha to counteract any pressure following Kapp’s wicket in that same over. South Africa had a lot of momentum going into the break after racking up 58 runs in the final five overs.
