IND W vs RSA W | Match Report: Annie Bosch’s brilliance overpowers Harleen Deol’s all-round efforts

Anneke Elizabeth Bosch pulled a short ball from Arundhati Reddy past the short square leg for a four to finish off the proceedings of what was another brilliant outing for the South Africa Women on their already dream tour of India. The all-rounder was on top of her game tonight as she has been throughout the tour. The right-hander, who came in as an opening partner to Lizelle Lee was the most detrimental figure with her unbeaten 66 off 48 balls, in South Africa women’s victory in the inaugural T20I of the three-match series at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow. 

Bosch’s contribution was not only with the bat, but even with the ball she was superb, getting rid of two set Indian batswomen, debutant half centurion  Harleen Deol and Jemimah Rodriguez in the same over. Bowling in the death, she gave away only 11 runs in her two overs and took two wickets as well. It was her and Shabnim Ismail with their lethal death bowling that restricted India to only 130 even after being 104/2 at the end of the 15th over. Bosch, 27, was adjudged Woman of the Match for this scintillating performance of her. 

Chasing a modest target of 131 set by India, Sune Luus’ team didn’t have a good start as even after getting dropped for nought, Lee, the sensation from the recently concluded ODI series, was caught at mid-on, just when she was at four. But that was the only source of joy for a long time for the Indian team as Luus and Bosch built a strong partnership. 

The South Africans were also helped by some very poor display of fielding from the women in blue. While Lee was stropped early on, even Bosch was given a chance first in the 11th over, the first of Deol, where the keeper Nuzhat Praween couldn’t hold on to a sharp edge. Bosch was at 27 then. In the 15th over, a brilliant fielding from Deepti Sharma of her own bowling created a runout opportunity, but the keeper was too late to dislodge the bails after collecting the throw from the bowler’s end from Deepti. Once again in the sixteenth over, Rajeshwari Gayakwad dropped a sitter of Luus, off the bowling of Deol. Although that did not cost much as Luus was caught by Deol on her own bowling off the very next ball. But not having learnt a lesson, Richa Ghosh committed a school girl’s error at Point in the 18th over just when the run rate pressure was building on the South Africans. 

All this caused a lot of problems for the Indians as the South Africans won the game with five balls remaining. 

Earlier in the evening, after losing the toss Smriti Mandhana and her women were sent to bat first. India didn’t have a good start and lost skipper Mandhana early, who was standing in for permanent captain Harmanprret as she suffered from ‘Hip Flexor’ prior to the game. Even after losing Mandhana early, Harleen, first with Shafali Verma and then with Rodriguez created useful partnerships which helped India get to 130. Deol's 52 off 47 was the highest individual score from the Indian side. 

The second game would be played at the same venue on Sunday 21st March and Indian eves would have one last chance to make sure they stay alive in the series and get a shot at avenging the ODI series loss.