South Africa Women vs India Women Final: Preview and Prediction
The Indian women’s cricket team will be up against the South African women in the final of the ongoing T20I Tri-Series. The match will be played in East London’s Buffalo Park on Thursday.
India has been absolutely superb thus far in this campaign. They won three of their four matches in the league phase, while the only match they did not manage to win was washed out due to rain. Harmanpreet Kaur’s women will be eager to extend their unbeaten streak.
On the other hand, South Africa might not have been as impressive as their final opponent, but they also played a good brand of cricket throughout the series. The Proteas won two of the four matches they played in the league phase.
What Have They Done So Far?
India started their campaign with a match against the hosts, where South Africa did a decent job to restrict the hosts to only 147 runs. However, it was then the turn of the Indian bowlers to prove their mettle, as the hosts could only score 120 runs.
In the second match, India batted first against West Indies and scored 167 runs, before restricting the opposition to only 111. The third game against South Africa was a washout, but in their last match, India held the Caribbean girls to only 94/6, before chasing it down at the loss of only two wickets.
South Africa started their journey with a 27-run defeat against India but then bounced back with a fantastic performance against West Indies. After scoring 141 runs, Sune Luus’ bowlers restricted the opposition to only 97, hence winning the match by 44 runs.
Interestingly, the South African bowlers replicated their feat to restrict West Indies to 97 once again in the third match, while bowling first this time around. They chased the total down with all ten wickets in hand before rain played spoilsport in their last match against India.
Head to Head Record
The head-to-head records between these two teams are inclined in favour of the Indians. The women in blue have beaten South Africa on nine occasions in T20Is, while the Proteas have enjoyed victory on four occasions. Besides that, four other matches did not produce a winner.
Before the two meetings in this series, one of which ended in a ‘no result’ while the other was won by India, the last meeting was way back in 2021. In that match in Lucknow, India bagged a comfortable 9-wicket win.
Key Players
Deepti Sharma (India Women): Deepti Sharma has been making headlines consistently – be it for her shrewd antics or her sensational bowling. The all-rounder is making a great time here in South Africa, as she is leading her team’s wicket-taking charts with 8 wickets. Besides that, she also scored 33 runs.
The 25-year-old started off with a three-wicket haul against South Africa in the first match, before picking up two wickets in the second game against West Indies. In the last match against the Caribbean side, she plucked yet another three-wicket haul.
Marizanne Kapp (South Africa): South Africa often relies on their inspirational all-rounder, Marizanne Kapp, to bail them out of difficult situations. They have done the same in this series, and the 33-year-old has obliged by scoring 74 runs at an average of 37 and a strike rate of 113.84, while also taking a wicket.
Kapp scored 22 runs and picked up a wicket in the first match against India, while her best performance came in the second game against West Indies. The lady from Cape Province smashed a 43-ball 52, which included 5 fours.
Predicted Playing XIs
India Women: Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Devika Vaidya, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh.
South Africa Women: Laura Wolvaardt, Tazmin Brits, Marizanne Kapp, Sune Luus (C), Chloe Tryon, Annerie Dercksen, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Tumi Sekhukhune, Shabnim Ismail, Nonkululeko Mlaba.
Prediction
Though South Africa will enjoy home advantage, India is enjoying a fantastic run of form at this time. With the head-to-head statistics also favoring them, we have predicted that the women in blue will make the country proud by winning the final.