India thrash SA, take T20 series 31
WONDER WOMEN India ride Mithali Raj’s 62 to defeat the hosts by 54 runs in the fifth T20I, win both ODI and T20 series for the first time CAPE TOWN:
India women beat South Africa by 54 runs in the fifth T20I to win the series 3-1 here on Saturday.
The match was half won when they reduced the Proteas women to 60 for five in the 11th over after having set a target of 167 in the fifth and final T20 International here at the Newlands on Saturday.
Superb bowling in the powerplay, where they conceded just 22 runs, picking three wickets helped them get a stranglehold of the match from where they went from strength to strength.
The performance in the powerplay is testimony to the all-round strength of Indian bowling attack. In contrast, they had lost just one wicket while batting in their powerplay.
Prior to this, they had won the one-day series, the ICC World Cup qualification round, 2-1.
Earlier, Mithali Raj’s half-century and her 98-run partnership with young batter Jemimah Rodrigues helped India notch up 166/4 in their 20 overs.
The India women put up a much better show than they did at Johannesburg where pacer Shabnim Ismael picked five to restrict them to less than 140. The Proteas women had got to the target quite easily.
This time though India have a very strong chance with the hosts needing over eight runs an over, a relatively more difficult task in women’s cricket.
Mithali Raj, who was dismissed for a duck in the last T20 began in an aggressive manner with Smriti Mandhana, the two putting up 32 in just over four overs. While Mandhana was out to a brilliant catch in the outfield, the former India T20 skipper continued milking the bowlers who struggled to make a breakthrough on a wicket that had no movement.
It was easy for India batters to come in the line of the ball and hit the ball over the top. The India women managed to hit seven sixes. The Proteas women applied some brakes in the 16th and 17th overs, picking Raj and Rodrigues. However, Harmanpreet Kaur blitzed to 17-ball 27, hitting two sixes and a four. Extras Total FoW: Bowling: 12 166
I bowled one that went straight and he left. Then I bowled one that turned in sharply and it hit his stumps even as he tried to leave it.
LEFTY ADAMS, On how he had dismissed Graeme Pollock
This was in 1960 when he was just 21.
Soon the games between inter-racial teams too were banned by the apartheid government and he could play only among his folks.
At first glance, Adams looks white due to Irish ancestry from one side. This is what the cops thought when they saw him