South Africa opener Liezel Lee blasted India’s career-best unbeaten 132-run knock as the home team lost by six runs through the Duckworth-Lewis (DLS) method, with the rain-hit third female ODI series third. The women’s ODI series was Friday. Chasing a competitive 249, Lee starred for the visitors with his breathtaking knock that came off 131 balls and had 16 fours and two hits over the fence. South Africa now lead the series 2–1.
Lee overtook South Africa with the required rate, which eventually proved crucial after the rain and deteriorated with spectators.
Earlier, Punam Raut hit a second half-century innings of 77 off 108 balls, leading India to a fighting score. Also, India’s captain Mithali Raj (36) became the first Indian woman to score 10,000 international runs during the 77-run third wicket stand with Raut.
South Africa came out to chase their target with the pair of Lee and captain Laura Volvard (12) added 41 runs for the opening wicket.
Off-spinners Deepti Sharma, Lara Goodall (16) and Lee led the innings with a 40-run stand for the second wicket.
Mignon du Preez (37) also contributed significantly as Lee followed South Africa by scoring only the third century of his career.
The first of the series, Lee’s century, reached 100 points in just 99 balls and included 13 fours and a six.
Du Preez and Lee shared a 97-run partnership for the third wicket. India scored 178 for four in the 38th over, bowling South Africa for 178 runs.
However, this threat was far from over for India as the scheduled lease was between the hosts and the win.
She was not in the mood to give up and continued her attacking batting to keep the visitors at the required rate.
Lee found a capable partner in Anne Bosch (16 not out) and a 45-run unbeaten partnership for the fifth wicket to take South Africa home.
For India, veteran Jhulan Goswami took two wickets for just 20 runs in his 9 overs.
Earlier, Raut, who scored 62 runs in a winning cause in the previous match, continued his good form after landing the hosts for batting.
He hit 11 fours during his innings. India then lost a big innings opener Jemimah Rodrigues (0) on the second ball of the innings, when he got Shabnim Ismail (2/46) caught out by Sinalo Jetta.
Raut joined Smriti Mandhana (25 for 27) at the crease and both came to India’s rescue once again, taking the team ahead by sharing 64 runs off 70 balls for the second wicket.
Mandhana, however, could not convert her debut into a big score. Mithali, departing soon after reaching only the second, major milestone internationally to complete 10,000 runs in all formats, threw an Anne Bosch delivery at mid-wicket straight to Mignon du Prez.
His 36 runs came off 50 balls and he hit five fours in the process.
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Soon after, Raut too fell and Harmanpreet Kaur (36 of 46) played a quick innings before becoming Ismail’s second victim as India reached 221 for five in the 45th over.
In the end, Deepti Sharma (36 not out) and Sushma Verma (14 not out) remained unbeaten and shared a 27-run partnership for the sixth wicket to bring India closer to a score of 250 runs.
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