India Women made a strong comeback in the ongoing series against South Africa Women as they registered a terrific nine-wicket victory riding on Smriti Mandhana and Jhulan Goswami’s brilliant batting and bowling efforts.

Goswami registered a spell of 10-0-42-4 to completely decimate the visitors, whereas Mandhana’s knock of 80*, which came in just 64 deliveries, only increased South Africa’s miseries further. Spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad also bowled an excellent spell as she registered figures of 9-0-37-3 to help the team in bowling South Africa out for just a paltry total of 157 runs.

India lost the wicket of Jemimah Rodrigues quite early during their chase but there was no stopping them once Punam Raut joined Smriti Mandhana at the crease.

Mandhana and Raut put on a stand of 138 runs for the second wicket to lead India to a brilliant nine-wicket victory. This was terrific considering that they had lost the previous game by eight wickets.

India took just 28.4 overs to chase down the target as Mandhana (80*) and Raut (62*) returned unbeaten. Raut hit eight fours in her innings, whereas Mandhana’s attacking knock consisted of 10 fours and three sixes.

Among the South African bowlers, Shabnim Ismail was the only one who had something to show in the wickets column. However, she turned out to be quite expensive as she conceded runs at an economy of 7.66 per over.

The visitors found themselves on the backfoot right from the start as they lost both of their openers — Laura Wolvaardt (9) and Lizelle Lee (4) — quite cheaply.

Sune Luus (36) and Lara Goodall (49) put on a 60-run stand for the third wicket. However, their batting totally collapsed once Luus departed. South Africa lost their next seven wickets in the space of just 77 runs.

Mansi Joshi (2-23) and Harmanpreet Kaur (0-1) also chipped in with wickets for India along. Goswami was adjudged as the ‘Player of the Match’ for her excellent spell of 4/42. The series is equally poised now with the scoreline reading 1-1.