Nadine de Klerk’s stunning strike gives South Africa a stunning win over India

Riding on the best knock of Nadine de Klerk’s career, South Africa on Thursday (October 9) beat India by three wickets at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.

The defeat ended India’s winning start to the ongoing World Cup. The Women in Blue started their campaign with back-to-back wins before suffering defeat to South Africa. With two wins from three matches, India currently sits third in the points table and will face leaders Australia next.

Reveal the top and middle order in India

As for South Africa, it ranks fourth with two wins in three matches. They started their campaign with a 10-wicket defeat to England before returning with impressive victories over New Zealand and India.

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For the third match in a row, India faced a batting collapse and were reeling at 102/6. The hosts were at 83/1 at one stage before Harleen Deol’s 17th-minute sending off sparked the collapse. India went on to lose five wickets for 19 runs only to find themselves firmly on the defensive.

Richa Ghosh then took charge of the innings and scored a brilliant 94 runs to push her team to a competitive total of 251 runs. Her knock came off just 77 balls and was studded with 11 fours and four sixes.

Richa and Amanjot Kaur steadied the ship by adding 51 runs for the seventh wicket before the latter departed for 13. It was followed by an 88-run stand between Richa and Sneh Rana for the eighth wicket. Richa looked destined to complete a stunning century but lost her wicket on the fourth ball of the final over.

For South Africa, Chloe Tryon took 3 wickets while Marizanne Kapp, De Klerk and Nonkululeko Mlaba took 2 wickets each.

Nadine de Klerk returns to her homeland in South Africa:

Chasing 252 runs, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals from the start and were reeling at 81/5 in the 20th over. Their chances of winning the match looked as good as they were at that stage but captain Laura Wolfhardt kept her team in contention with a brilliant knock of 70 points.

She and Tryon revived South Africa’s hopes by standing 61 runs for the sixth wicket before Kranti Goud dismissed the South African skipper to put India in the driver’s seat. However, the wicket did not bring any relief to India as De Klerk did not allow them to capitalize on the breakthrough.

She and Tryon turned the game on its head by adding 69 runs for the seventh wicket. Sneh Rana ended the situation by dismissing Tryon for 49 but de Klerk stayed on until the end and scored an unbeaten 84 off just 54 balls to take her team home within 49 overs. Her knock was studded with 8 fours and 5 sixes.