The 1st ODI between Indian women and South African women took place in the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 16. India Women registered a convincing win by 143 runs. Smriti Mandhana smashed a hundred whereas Asha Sobhana claimed a four-wicket haul on debut and sealed the deal.

India won the toss and opted to bat first. But they got a huge blow as Shafali Verma (7) got out cheaply. India lost wickets at regular intervals. Even as Mandhana held one end and kept the scoreboard ticking, Dayalan Hemalatha (12), Harmanpreet Kaur (10), Jemimah Rodrigues (17) and Richa Ghosh (3) couldn’t contribute and they struggled in the middle.

Smriti Mandhana scored a hundred

But then Mandhana added 81 runs with Deepti Sharma (37) and 58 with Pooja Vastrakar (31*) to resurrect the innings. Mandhana batted till the 47th over, hitting 12 fours and a six, scoring a well-made hundred. However, it was Mandhana’s sixth century in the 50-over format, and the highest ODI score by an Indian woman at home as well. She also scored 7000 international runs as well.

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However, she finished her knock with 117 off 127 balls to help the hosts recover from 99/5 to 265/8 as well. While chasing, pacer Renuka Singh gave India the first breakthrough by dismissing Laura Wolvaardt with the fourth ball of the innings.

Asha Sobhana scalped a four-wicket haul

Only the experienced duo of Sune Luus (33) and Marizanne Kapp (24) managed to contribute. Meanwhile, Asha Sobhana dismissed Kapp for her first ODI wicket before Deepti trapped Luus before the stamps in the 29th over as well. Keeper-batter Sinalo Jafta scored an unbeaten 27 down the order but a lack of support and proper partnerships cost South Africa the game as they were all out for 122.

Player of the Match

Smriti Mandhana said: “We won the match so really happy that I could contribute, important to start the tournament well, we got 100+ win, nothing better than that. As I said earlier, it was really a task not to go aerial and go for the grounded shots, we have played a lot of T20 cricket, today the need was for partnerships, credit to Deepti and Pooja for getting those. It was playing the situation. In one-day cricket and white-ball cricket, there will be days when one or two batters will carry the team. My role was to take it deep, once I was set, having got to 30-40. I don’t think anyone got out after getting set and that was the role given to me.”