Double impact: Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur tons sink South Africa

Bengaluru, June 19

Hundreds from Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were nearly upended by remarkable centuries from Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp but India kept their nerves to beat South Africa by four runs in a last-over thriller to take an unassailable 2-0 in ODI series here today.

646 This is the highest match aggregate involving these two teams

4 This is India’s smallest margin of victory in terms of runs in WODIs, beating the 5-run win against NZ

It’s a great achievement for women’s cricket to have nearly 650 runs in the game. SA played really well. Harmanpreet Kaur, India captain and player of the match

It was a matter of margin once India posted an imposing 325/3, riding on Mandhana’s 136 off 120 balls, with 18 fours and 2 sixes and Harmanpreet’s unbeaten 103 off 88 balls, with 9 fours and 3 sixes). Mandhana has equalled Mithali Raj’s record of most ODI centuries by an Indian woman, while Harmanpreet is one behind.

However, the Proteas fought back through Kapp (114 off 94 balls, with 11 fours and 3 sixes) and Wolvaardt (135 not out off 135 balls, with 12 fours and 3 sixes). The duo added 184 runs off 170 balls for the fourth wicket.

The Chinnaswamy pitch stayed truer as compared to the previous match and the Indian bowlers had to be precise in their line and length on this day to be effective. They did just that. At no point, the home bowlers allowed SA batters a free run, picking up wickets at regular intervals.

However, Mandhana gave the crowd the moment of the day when she accounted for Sune Luus, caught behind by Richa Ghosh, to bag her maiden international wicket.

Brief scores: India: 325/3 (Mandhana 136, Harmanpreet 103*; Mlaba 2/51); South Africa: 321/6 (Wolvaardt 135*, Kapp 114; Deepti 2/56, Vastrakar 2/54).