India Women's team seal the T20 Series with an emphatic win

The Indian women’s team produced a dominating display to beat South Africa by 5 wickets in the fifth T20I match played at Lalabhai Contractor Stadium, Surat on Thursday.

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and decided to field first. Sune Luus and Lizelle Lee started off cautiously and put on 23 runs. Radha Yadav got the breakthrough, dismissing Sune Luus for seven runs. At the end of 6 overs, South African women were 25 for the loss of 1 wicket.

After the power play, Poonam Yadav got the wicket of dangerous Lizelle Lee. The Indian spinners strangled South African batsmen and did not allow South African batters to score runs easily. It was a brilliant performance by Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur who showed their class on a batting friendly pitch. Indian women restricted South Africa at the score of 98 for 8.

Chasing the target of 99 runs to win, Indian opener Shafali Verma played some lovely strokes before being dismissed by Shabnim Ismail for 14. Smriti Mandhana poor run of form continued as she was dismissed for seven. At the end of powerplay, Indian women were 28 for 2.

After the power play overs, Rodrigues also fell cheaply for seven. The Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma steadied the ship and took singles and hit occasional boundaries to put South African bowlers under pressure. 

Both batters added 50 runs for the 4th wicket before Deepti Sharma was caught by Shabnmil Ismail. Veda Krishnamurthy was also dismissed cheaply for five. Harmanpreet Kaur hit the winning runs for India as India won the match with 17 balls to spare.

Indian women 99 for 5 in 17.1 overs ( Harmanpreet Kaur 34*, Ismail 2/19) beat South African women 98 for 8 in 20 overs ( Lizelle Lee 16, Radha Yadav 3/23, Deepti Sharma 2/19) by 5 wickets.

The sixth and final T20I of the series will be played tomorrow at the same ground.