Van Niekerk and Lee blow India away
Dane van Niekerk returned to the venue of her history-making spell against West Indies to produce a performance par excellence, with bat and ball, to demolish India in Leicester
Dane van Niekerk returned to the venue of her history-making spell against West Indies to produce a performance par excellence, with bat and ball, to demolish India in Leicester
That is all we have from this game. Two matches happening tomorrow, including the big one, between England and Australia, so make sure to join us. Until then,it's goodbye from all of us here.
Dane van Niekerk is the player of the match. No prices for guessing that. "First of all, this goes to Lizelle Lee, I think she deserves it more than I do," she says. "We have good days and bad days, but I am just glad to have been able to perform for the team. I just thought of taking it deep. I knew I could take it away at the back end. Struggled a bit, but it came off in the end. It wasn't as clinical as I had hoped it would be, but a win is a win. She stuck to her guns and she found her groove and her rhythm and it came off today. If I get,in my opinion, the best batter in the world, it's better than getting a fifty."
"We decided to field because of the history at the ground," says Mithali Raj. "People were saying most of the matches here are won chasing. And even the matches we played against South Africa in the qualifiers, we ad won chasing. We did realise that her (Lee) wicket was important, but I give full credit to her batting because her shots were really clean and she did play one of the best innings in the World Cup. Australia is right now at the top and are one of the best sides in the world. It's not going to be easy, but we need to play our best cricket. It obviously doesn't feel good that you were not able to contribute to the team, but it's all a part of the game ad you need to absorb all this."
5.07pm What a one-sided thrashing this has been. This was an important match for South Africa, they had been absolutely walloped by England in Bristol. But they had never lost at this venue in this tournament and they have now made it three in three in Leicester. A win for India would have seen them through to the semi-final. Their position remains unchanged, but they still have to fight it out to make the last four, and against tough opponents. As for South Africa, they have risen to fourth. Dane van Niekerk and her team get down and say their prayers. They have a lot to be thankful for after today's performance.This was an Indian team that was coming on the back of four wins in as many matches. But that juggernaut has been emphatically broken, with the captain van Niekerk playing no small part herself. Stay tuned for the presentations.
Poonam Yadav c †Chetty b Ismail 0 (4m 7b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0
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Dane van Niekerk returned to the venue of her history-making spell against West Indies to produce a performance par excellence, with bat and ball, to demolish India in Leicester