Chennai. India’s hopes of making a comeback in the three-match series and South Africa’s hopes of making an unassailable lead were dashed due to rain, due to which the second women’s T20 international cricket match between these two teams had to be canceled here on Sunday. South Africa won the first match by 12 runs and thus they are leading 1-0 in the three-match series. The third and final match will be played on the same ground on Tuesday.
After being invited to bat first, South Africa posted a challenging score of 177 for six with the help of Tejmin Brits’ second consecutive half-century. Before the start of the Indian innings, it started raining and did not stop and the umpires finally declared the match cancelled at 10:05 pm local time.
Earlier, Brits took advantage of the life she got in the beginning and scored 52 runs in 39 balls which included six fours and a six. Apart from her, Anneka Bosch contributed 40 runs with the help of six fours in 32 balls. From India, experienced spinner Deepti Sharma (two wickets for 20 runs) and Pooja Vastrakar (two wickets for 37 runs) were the most successful bowlers.
Off-spinner Sajeevan Sajna had Brits, the heroine of South Africa’s victory in the first match, stumped by Uma Chhetri, who was playing her first match in T20 international cricket, but the Indian wicketkeeper caught the ball in front of the stumps, which made it a no-ball and the South African batsman got a lifeline.
Brits hit three fours in this over while captain Laura Woolfart (22 runs off 12 balls) hit three consecutive fours in the next over of Arundhati Reddy. Both of them shared a 43-run partnership in 25 balls for the first wicket. Pooja put an end to Woolfart’s aggressive attitude by dismissing her. Radha Yadav took a brilliant catch at point. South Africa scored 66 runs for one wicket in the six overs of the power play.
After this, the Indian spinners tightened the reins and allowed South Africa to score only 55 runs in the next nine overs. Deepti did not let Marizanne Kapp (20) play a long innings. However, Brits kept scoring runs in the meantime. She welcomed Radha Yadav with a six and then completed her half-century in 36 balls. Soon after this, she returned to the pavilion. This time Uma did not make any mistake in stumping her out on Deepti’s ball. South Africa scored 31 runs in the last two overs. From their side, Chloe Tryon (12), Nadine de Klerk (14) and Anri Dirksen (12 not out) also made useful contributions.