Women's T20 WC: Kapp, Ismail shine as South Africa restricts India to 158

Manchester [UK], June 21 (ANI): A collective bowling display from South Africa Women’s restricted India to 158/7 in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup clash on Sunday in Manchester.

South Africa fought back after a strong start by India. After Marizanne Kapp castled Smriti Mandhana (17), Shabmin Ismail has struck back with the wicket of Shafali Verma (31). Both the openers were back in the pavilion as India finished the powerplay at 59/2.

Ayabonga Khaka joined the party as she trapped Yastika Bhatia’s leg before the wicket. Though India have lost their top 3, they ticked at a good rate. After 10 overs, India are 82/3.

Seasoned campaigners Nadine De Klerk and Shabmin Ismail landed a couple of blows to peg India back to 116/5 in 15 overs.

Jeminah Rodrigues fell to a caught and bowled off De Klerk, while Ismail’s final over garnered the wicket of captain Harmanpreet Kaur and just three runs.

Kaur playing her 200th T20 made her the first cricketer to reach the landmark. It was an impressive bowling performance by South Africa in the second half to restrict India’s power-packed batting to 158/7.

The last 10 overs accounted for 76 runs and four wickets.

This is the second time that India Women have gone past 150 without an individual 50-plus score in the Women’s T20 WC, after 163/5 against Bangladesh Women in Bengaluru in 2016.

With the bat for India, Shafali Verma top-scored with 31, while Deepti Sharma (29) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (24) made useful contributions to the innings.

With the ball, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail picked up two wickets each, while Nonkululeko Mlaba, Ayabonga Khaka and Nadine de Klerk claimed one wicket apiece. (ANI)

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