World Cup for Proteas

COLOMBO: South African women’s cricket captain Dane van Niekerk was not too disappointed after stand-in captain Harmanpreet Kaur lifted India to a thrilling lastball victory over the Proteas in the final of the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Sri Lanka yesterday.

Set to chase 245, India had all but lost their way after a flurry of wickets, but Kaur kept her cool to score the nine runs required off the last over from pace bowler Marcia Letsoala.

“It was a really good score and we were really happy. But if we had somebody who went on like Deepti Sharma to score 70-odd, we would have made life a lot easier,” Van Niekerk said.

With one wicket in hand and one run scored off the first four deliveries of the last over, Kaur heaved a six followed by two runs off the last ball.

Earlier, India’s reply had started slowly as they found themselves 20/1 after 7.3 overs, before opener Mona Meshram and left-hander Deepti Sharma added 124 runs in the next 25 overs to raise the team’s hopes.

Meshram struck 59 off 82 balls with seven fours and one six, while Sharma knocked up 71 off 89 balls with eight fours.

Van Niekerk had said on the eve of the match that her team would play positively against the spinners and just about each of the team’s batters did that, showing fine footwork to negate India’s spinners.

Openers Lizelle Lee (37) and Laura Wolvaardt (21) added 51 runs in 10 overs to put South Africa on the road to a big total, even as the Indian bowlers struggled to slow the flow of runs.

Lee was quick to despatch anything loose over the infield, smashing three fours and three sixes off 31 balls. Mignon du Preez (40), Van Niekerk (37) and Sune Luus (35) all found ways to counter the Ekta Bishtled spin attack.

India and South Africa, along with Sri Lanka and Pakistan, have qualified for the Women’s World Cup where they will join Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies.

The four top teams from the tournament also made the ICC Women’s Championship while the top six – Ireland and Bangladesh being the other two teams – are assured of ODI status for the next four years. – Sports Reporter