India may have dodged a bullet as rain washed away the fourth Twenty20 International at Centurion on Wednesday. South Africa were in a commanding position before the heavy downpour, getting to 130/3 in just 15.3 overs.
The series will now be decided at Cape Town on Saturday with India still leading 2-1; the hosts can only draw the series from here. India’s hopes of creating history with an unprecedented double series win in South Africa is still alive.
But, that can happen only with a much improved bowling display. Almost everything went wrong for the visitors after Harmanpreet Kaur decided to bowl, keeping in mind how good India were chasing down a target in the first two games.
Lizelle Lee (58* from 38) and Dane van Niekerk (55 from 47) sent the bowlers on a leather hunt as they brought up a massive 103-run opening stand, which came off just 75 balls. The carnage started after Lee and van Niekerk got off to a sedate start, choosing to rotate the strike over clearing the infield in the first four overs.
It was van Niekerk who kicked off the boundary-hitting spree with a pull to the deep mid-wicket fence in Rumeli Dhar’s over. The veteran all-rounder was making a comeback to the Indian side after a gap of nearly six years – every player barring Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy had made their debut while she was away from the squad.
On a day when bowlers were ripped to shreds, Dhar had an adequate game, still reminding the opposition that she can swing the ball both ways with aplomb. Her most telling contribution, though, was plucking out two sharp catches – at mid off and mid-wicket.
Surprisingly, it was the spinners who bore the brunt of the Lee and Van Niekerk’s assault. Poonam Yadav and young pacer Pooja Vastrakar had among the better figures of the day. Once again, Vastrakar was tidy and got the ball to drift away from the right-handers regularly. She conceded just 10 runs from her three overs.
Rajaeswari Gayakwad and the returning Deepti Sharma were on the receiving end of an excellent counter-attack. Lee and Van Niekerk used their feet well and swept aggressively, and the Indian spinners, for once, looked bereft of ideas. Sharma struggled for rhythm during her run-up to the crease.
With Lee lending catching practice to the supporters seated on the grass banks, three of her batting partners departed in quick succession – Van Niekerk, Chloe Tryon and Sune Luus.
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