Laura Wolvaardt was dropped on 22, she went on to make 33. Marizanne Kapp was put down on 15, she went on to score a superb 57. Tazmin Brits was given a reprieve on 50. She top-scored on the night – her career-best too – to score 81 and was only dismissed off the last ball of South Africa’s innings as they went on to post 189/4.
The easiest way to restrict a team on a good batting wicket is to keep taking regular wickets, but India failed to capitalise on their chances. In the end, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co fell 12 runs short in the run-chase in Chennai in the first T20I. Perhaps there are bones to pick about their batting too, but they lost the match on the field earlier in the night.
Take nothing away from Brits though. The former javelin thrower sent a few spheres soaring into the night sky after struggling to put the ball to bat early in the innings. She was 0 off 6 at one point, then 1 off 11, but finished on 81 off 56 balls. Once she got going, she made India pay. Brits is known to be a slow starter but her power game kicks in when she gets her eye in. She can be a bit of an enigma and this stat sums it up: Brits finished the powerplay with a strike rate of 68, she scored at a strike rate of 175 in the last 14 overs.
Brits, who has the Olympic rings tattooed on her right arm, started off the month of Paris Games on a fine note. But in the end, she wasn’t fully happy with her knock. “Don’t think I can explain that,” Brits said during the presentation. “I might have made the runs, still not happy with myself. I was struggling and felt I was letting Wolfie and Kappie down the way they were batting. But glad I was able to make up the strike rate in the end.”
After doing well in the ODIs and the one-off Test, India faltered in the format that mattered the most in the short term. A few weeks away from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, it wasn’t an ideal display from India from the word go. Shreyanka Patil, one of the better fielders in the side, dropped Wolvaardt at short third after coming on as a substitute. Kapp’s reprieve was not the easiest of chances, but having made the ground superbly from long off, Smriti Mandhana would feel she should have held on. And then came perhaps the most decisive drop, as Richa Ghosh completely misjudged a skier, tried diving to make up lost ground but ended up injuring herself in the process and didn’t play any further part on the night.
“We didn’t play good cricket overall. Dropped too many chances which cost us 20 extra runs. While batting, we played too many dots in the middle overs,” captain Harmanpreet said after the match.
The fielding issues have followed the Indian women regularly but the ODIs and Tests showed definite improvement, something Amol Muzumdar has been insisting on as the head coach. The think-tank will hope that it was just a one-off bad night.
“Just a bad day in the office, we have brilliant fielders in the group, we are all working really hard on the fielding but we will try to bounce back,” Radha Yadav said after the match in the press conference. “As a bowling unit too we made some errors, and gave 15-20 runs extra. Brits batted well without a doubt, but we also made some mistakes. Whenever we bowled full, the ball travelled.”
With the bat, Smriti Mandhana was once again batting like a dream, but the red-hot opener fell for 48 off 30 balls after giving her side a solid start. But there was a lull in the middle overs that cost them. The bright spot was Jemimah Rodrigues. Her superb innings gave some hope for 12,000+ fans in the stands. With 27 off 7 needed, a few fans started walking out. But Rodrigues smashed a six for a 29-ball half century, and they stayed back. The finishing kick, however, didn’t quite come in time on a humid night.
