India Women secures a big win against South Africa Women in the first ODI at Bengaluru. Smriti Mandhana, the best batter among Indian women, scored a huge century for the team to secure a big win by 143 runs. India looked in complete trouble at one moment on 99 runs from 21.5 overs. They lost 5 wickets for 99 and except for Smriti Mandhana, no one looked comfortable at the crease.
Earlier, India Women won the toss and elected to bat first. Shafali Verma(7), Dayalan Hemalatha(12), Harmanpreet Kaur(10), Jemimah Rodrigues(17) and Richa Ghosh(3) failed to score freely. Hence, Indian team got reduced to 99/5. At that moment, Deepti Sharma(37) has put on a 81-run partnership for the 6th wicket.
Smriti Mandhana completed her century from 116 balls. She got out trying to accelerate after scoring 117 runs from 127 balls. Pooja Vastrakar scored 31 runs from 42 balls to finish the innings on a high. India Women scored 265/8 in 50 overs. Ayabonga Khaka(3/47), Masabata Klaas(2/51) took most wickets for South Africa.
In the chase, South Africa Women openers Laura Wolvaardt(4), Anneke Bosch(5) got out early. Their best and star batters, Sune Luus(33) and Marizanne Kapp(24) could not really save the innings. After they got out, Asha Sobhana(4/21) quickly rattled other batters. South Africa Women could only score 122 runs from 37.4 overs.
Hence, India Women registered a big win by 143 runs. Smriti Mandhana captained RCB in recently concluded WPL and even won the title for her team. She looked very comfortable on the Bengaluru pitch and kept India ahead on track, even when middle order failed to support her. Both the teams will play 2 more ODIs in Bengaluru and 3 T20Is in Chennai.