By Admin 
It needed something special to nullify a spectacular 76-ball 94 by Richa Ghosh. But Nadine de Klerk’s spirit was not to be denied as her unbeaten 84 off 54 balls helped South Africa painstakingly hack down 251 to beat India by three wickets and with seven balls to spare in an ODI World Cup league fixture at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Thursday.
Opting to chase after a brief rain-induced delay to the game, South Africa ran into a high-on-momentum thunderstorm in Richa, whose late blitz rescued India from a worrying 102 for six.
Turning the corner
Despite a decent start, Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal fell earlier than India would have liked. The batting unit’s weakness against left-arm spin came to the fore again, with Chloe Tryon and Nonkululeko Mlaba sharing the spoils.
India crumbled, losing five wickets for 19 runs, but Richa and Sneh Rana’s 88-run stand turned the face of the innings and turned the pressure right back on the South Africans.
The chase barely got going, with Kranti Gaud removing Tazmin Brits – coming off a sensational hundred against New Zealand – with a spectacular catch. Kapp was given a reprieve early with a dropped chance by Pratika, but Sneh ensured she fumed her way back to the pavilion soon with a rattled off stump. Luus fell cheaply too. It took the arrival of Tryon for Wolvaardt to find steady support, the pair putting up a 61-run stand. Harmanpreet Kaur turned to Kranti and she delivered emphatically with a yorker searing through Wolvaardt’s middle stump. Tryon then paired up with Nadine de Klerk to push for an increasingly unlikely win.
Cramping by the end of it, Tryon lost her wicket to a brilliant leg before review by Sneh.
De Klerk pulled out her resigned teammates from the depths of the dressing room with a barrage of boundaries off Kranti’s last over. Right after, much like another India vs South Africa encounter a while ago, the Indian keeper, went down cramping and pressed pause on the Protean surge.
But de Klerk and the Proteas kept the faith to make it a third consecutive win against India in the 50-over showpiece.