| 1W | ||||
| 1W | ||||
| 2W | ||||
Scorer: Harshith Gowda | Commentator: Aaditya Narayan
And that's all we have from a superb second ODI at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. India have taken an unassailable lead in this ODI series. We'll be back at the Chinnaswamy for the final ODI of the series on Sunday, before the caravan moves to Chennai for the Tests and the T20s. But for now, that's all we have. On behalf of my fellow commentator Shashwat, and our scorers Harshith and Chetan, this is Aaditya signing off. Good night!
Harmanpreet Kaur is the player of the match: I think it's a great achievement for women's cricket to have nearly 650 runs in the game. South Africa played really well. I think while batting, we were up to the mark. Initially, when the ball was moving, both the openers didnn't throw their wickets. It made it easier later. We made some errors while bowling, we didn't bowl according to the field. I know it's a batting track, it's not easy to bowl. But if we bowl again on this kind of track, we need to see what we need to do. Actually, in the batters camp, all the batters bowled. Smriti asked me to tell Amol that she's a great bowler. I think that camp helped us a lot. Shafali also did well with the ball. Good to see Smriti get the wicket. I think that [our strike bowler] is always Deepti. She's someone who always takes wickets for the team. Today I told her she was going to take the wicket when Kapp and Laura were batting. I think in the first game, I was batting well, but I got out. I just told myself I wasn't going to give up, I wasn't going to think negatively. I wanted to keep batting and keep trusting my skills. When you're playing international games, I just make sure my mind is positive and fresh, and just trust my skills.
Laura Wolvaardt: I'm just extremely proud of the group to get us to the position we did. At the halfway stage, it was easy to go into our shells with that huge total on the board. Kappie did so well to take the pressure off the group. Not ideal having just the few bowling options today. India nailed the yorkers well at the death, we gave a few too many runs at that point. If it's only a four-run loss, you can look back at each little thing, which makes it a little annoying. We'll look at the positives, this was the best batting performance we've had for a while.
8.38pm: Phew. Now I can catch my breath back. From 67/3 chasing 326, it seemed like there was no hope for South Africa. But Kapp began an assault in the middle overs. She made a superb hundred. Wolvaardt supported her superbly. But then she took centrestage when Kapp got dismissed. Her superb 135 had South Africa in with a shout right until the end. Vastrakar held her nerve in that final over, especially from 6 off 4, where South Africa just couldn't get a hold of Vastrakar's slower ones. To execute those after a few full tosses initially would've taken a lot of character, and Vastrakar showed it.
Rambo: "Both team were similar in batting and bowling. Indian team gave only 9 extras compared to 17 by SA team. That proved the difference."
Amol Muzumdar: It was on of those moments where you let go of your emotions. I think it was a fantastic game. 325 on the board, it was an exciting game to watch, but not from the dugout. Some amazing stuff that she [Vastrakar] did in the last over. We always believe how you come back in a white-ball game is very crucial. She came back and bowled a spectacular last over with those slower ones and those variations. Smriti has nagging me for a while to give her a couple of overs. We made a conscious effort that among our top 6 batters, somebody needs to put their hand up and bowl a few overs. The only message we sent was to hold their nerves and try and use their variations.
Wolvaardt on strike. Six for the win. Four for the tie. Can she do it?
Poor game awareness from Shangase there. Will the debutant Meike de Ridder do any better? She had a rather torrid afternoon with the gloves behind the stumps. Can she redeem herself. 6 off 2 needed
N Shangase c Kaur b Vastrakar 0 (1m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Nondumiso Shangase walks in. She'll take strike with South Africa needing 6 off 3. You'd think the smart play for Shangase is to just hand it over to Wolvaardt and say "win this for us, skipper"
N de Klerk c Reddy b Vastrakar 28 (28m 22b 2x4 1x6) SR: 127.27
6 off 4...
10 off 5...
South Africa need 11 off the last over to pull off a world record chase. What a game this has been. We go right down to the wire. Vastrakar will bowl the final one. Wolvaardt on strike.
And who has the highest individual score in a T20 World Cup match?
She said there were lessons to pick up from Wolvaardt not getting enough strike in the final stages of the second ODI
A dramatic game came down to the final ball, with South Africa's captain taking on India's key death bowler, and there could be only one winner
Only once before has more runs been scored in a women's ODI, while this is the first instance of four women scoring centuries in an ODI
Nadine de Klerk, who had missed the first ODI with illness, was back for South Africa
