India women play for pride in final ODI against SA

Barring the convincingly nine-wicket win in the second match, the Indian women have barely fired in unison while the South Africans, who have already clinched the series 3-1, have excelled as a team

Lucknow: The series already out of their grasp, the Indian women cricketers, who are struggling to put together a cohesive team show, will have pride at stake when they clash with South Africa women in the fifth and final One-day International, here on Wednesday.

Barring the convincingly nine-wicket win in the second match, the Indian women have barely fired in unison while the South Africans, who have already clinched the series 3-1, have excelled as a team.

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To be fair to the home side players, they were a bit rusty as they are playing their first international series after more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic while South Africa recently beat Pakistan 3-0 at home.

The Indian team also missed the flair of young Shafali Verma at the top of the order and the experience of Shikha Pandey in bowling department.

Indian spinners, save Rajeshwari Gayakwad (5 wickets from 4 matches), were a big letdown on the slow tracks and that has played a big part in India’s series loss when the South Africans chased down 249 and 267 in the third and fourth matches.

Top-order batter Punam Raut has been in sensational form with scores of 10, 62 not out, 77 and 104 not out in the four games. Captain Mithali Raj and her deputy Harmapreet Kaur were the other two consistent batters while star opener Smriti Mandhana shone only in the second match.

The South Africans, on the other hand, have excelled in team work with their batters and bowlers performing. For them, opening batswoman Lizelle Lee has been in ominous form, topping the overall batting chart with 288 runs with scores of 83 not out, 4, 132 not out and 69.