India women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and decided to bowl first against South Africa in Chennai on Friday (July 5) in the first T20I of their three-match series. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard)
Explaining why she chose to field, Harmanpreet said: "It is the first game and a score on the board will give us an idea on how to go about it."
She added: "We go in the same mindset as the Bangladesh series. We are going with the same XI we went with in the first ODI."
Her opposing number Laura Wolvaardt said: "We would have bowled first as well. But we will try and put up a good score on the board. It is a wonderful opportunity to play in the subcontinent. We do have our eyes on the T20 World Cup later this year. Tryon comes in and we are happy to have her back."
Playing XIs
India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh.
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Marizanne Kapp, Anneke Bosch, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Eliz-mari Marx, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba.
All three games will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk), where the Indian women won the one-off Test against the Proteas by a thumping 10-wicket margin. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side had earlier swept the ODI series 3-0 in Bengaluru.
India are in good T20I form, having blanked Bangladesh 5-0 in an away series earlier. But prior to that, they went down 1-2 to both England and Australia at home.
But their opponents South Africa have fared worse, losing four of their six T20Is against Australia and Sri Lanka.
