India players celebrate the wicket of Proteas batter Marizanne Kapp during game two of their ODI series at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. Picture: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images
It was heartbreak for the Proteas women as they fell an agonising four runs short of the highest successful run chase in Women’s One-Day International history, in the second ODI against India at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
After being set a massive 326 to win Marizanne Kapp, 114 off 94 balls (11×4, 3×6) and captain Laura Wolvaardt, 135no off 135 (12×4, 3×6) almost pulled off a blinding chase, only for them to fall short on 321/6.
It was a much-improved performance from their opening game of the series, which India won by a massive 143 runs, and although they have lost the series, the SA squad have a number of positives to take into the final game on Sunday.
“I think four runs is a bit heartbreaking in a chase of 300 plus, but I am just extremely proud of the group to get us into a position to win the match. At the halfway stage if you see that huge total on the board it’s easy for us to go into our shells, and we didn’t have the fastest start,” said Wolvaardt.
“But Kappie took so much pressure off the entire lineup in the middle and got us into a position to win that game.
“With it being a four run loss we can look back at each little thing (that could have gone our way), which is a little annoying. But I think we will just look at the positives as much as we can. I think this was our best batting performance in quite a while so we will definitely take the positives out of that, especially after how we batted in the last game.”
In the match India batted first and powered their way to a monster 325/3, thanks centuries from opener Smriti Mandhana, 136 off 120 (18×4, 2×6), and captain Harmanpreet Kaur, 103no off 88 balls (9×4, 3×6).
It was a tough outing for the Proteas bowlers, with Nonkululeko Mlaba the pick of the lot claiming 2/51 in her 10 overs.
The visitors response then got off to a poor start Tazmin Brits (5), Anneke Bosch (18) and Sune Luus (12) all got out cheaply leaving them in trouble on 67/3 in the 15th over.
However, in came Kapp to join her captain, who carried her bat, and they set about a huge 184-run partnership to get them right back into the game.
Kapp’s dismissal in the 43rd over, caught on the long off boundary, was a hammer blow, but Nadine de Klerk, 28 off 22 (2×4, 1×6) helped get Wolvaardt in touch of a famous win.
With 11 needed to win off the final over Pooja Vastrakar picked up two wickets, and with Wolvaardt only facing two balls, including the last needing to hit a six for the win, she missed the slower delivery to fall just short.
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