After clean-sweeping the three-game ODI bilateral series, the Indian women's cricket team continued their winning run and defeated South Africa by 10 wickets in the one-off Test match held at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. (More Cricket News)
The Laura Wolvaardt-led South African side showed brilliant fightback and forced India to bat in the fourth innings after India enforced the follow-on. South Africa set a 37-run target for the Indian team which they chased down successfully in 9.2 overs in the final hour of the last day.
India batted first in the only Test match and mounted 525 runs on the first day thanks to the opener batter Shafali Verma's double ton. Se made 205 runs off 197 balls to complete India's only second double-century in Test cricket.
Verma hit 23 fours and eight sixes in her belligerent inning which was the fastest double century in women's cricket. The first double-ton for the Indian women's cricket team came from veteran batter Mithali Raj. She scored 214 runs off 407 balls against England at Taunton in August 2002.
The first-inning total of the Indian team (603/6) was the first instance when any team surpassed the 600-run total in women's Test cricket. This was the highest total in women's Test cricket.
Along with Verma, Smriti Mandhana also played a 149-run knock to complete her second Test century. It was her third international century in the last 12 days. She missed out on a deserving double century but Shafali stood there at the crease and achieved the feat on the very first day of the Test match.
Jemimah Rodrigues (55), Harmanpreet Kaur (69) and Richa Ghosh (86) also played crucial knocks to take India past 600 runs. After playing 115.1 overs, Kaur declared the innings and invited the South African team to bat on Day 2.
Sune Luus (65) and Marizanne Kapp (74) played half-century knocks to take South Africa to 266 runs, but it was not enough to avoid the follow-on. Sneh Rana, the right-arm off-spinner took eight wickets in the first innings to enforce the Proteas women's team for the follow-on. Deepti Sharma also grabbed a brace of wickets.
In their second inning, South African women looked determined to score big. Captain Laura Wolvaardt played a 122-run knock in 314 balls to keep their hopes alive. Sune Luus continued her good form in the match and converted her fifty in the first inning into a century in the second inning. She made 109 runs off 203 balls with the help of 18 fours.
Nadine de Klerk kept the hopes of a draw alive and managed a few small partnerships with the tailenders to complete her half-century. She made 61 runs and played 185 balls. Proteas women managed to take a lead of 36 runs in the second innings. Now, Indian women needed to make 37 runs in around two hours of play left for the Day 4.
Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad shared two wickets each whereas Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur took one wicket each.
With only 37 runs needed to win the match, Shubha Satheesh accompanied Verma to open the batting and completed the chase without the loss of any wicket under 10 overs. Sneh Rana was given the Player of the Match for taking 10 wickets in the match.
Now, Indian women will host South Africa for a three-game T20I series starting on Friday, 5 July 2024. All matches will be played at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
