India Women vs South Africa Women: 1st ODI - Mithali Raj’s long career, Harmanpreet’s 100th ODI and more stats

Indian Women’s team have been completely outplayed in the first match of the five-match ODI series against South Africa. India were invited to bat first after losing the toss here at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. The hosts had a pretty ordinary start as they lost the initial 3 wickets for just 40 runs.

Captain Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur stitched an important partnership of 62 runs for the fourth wicket taking the team’s total above 100 in the 25th over. Harmanpreet fell after scoring 40 runs off 41 balls with the help of 6 fours. Mithali got dismissed soon after completing her 54th ODI fifty. The Indian team could score only 177/9 in their 50-over quota. South Africa pacer Shabnim Ismail picked up 3 wickets for 28 runs in her 10 overs. 

The visitors were in complete control of the chase in the second innings as their openers Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt shared a brilliant century partnership. Both of them added 169 runs for the first wicket. Proteas Women won this match in just 40.1 overs and with 8 wickets in hand.

Lizelle Lee top-scored for them with 83 runs coming off 122 balls. Her partner Laura Wolvaardt gathered 80 runs off 110 balls with the help of 12 fours. The second match of this series will be played on 9th March on the same ground.

Let’s look at important stats and numbers after the end of the first ODI between India women and South Africa women:

4 – Indian captain Mithali Raj who made her ODI debut in 1999 became the first cricketer in Women’s ODI history to play in four different decades.

21 – With her appearance in the first ODI against South Africa, Mithali’s 50-over career has now stretched into 22nd year. Her ODI career of 21 years and 254 days is the second-longest in overall ODI history after Sachin Tendulkar (22 years, 91 days).

100 – Harmanpreet Kaur became the fifth Indian women player to feature in 100 ODI games. Before her, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Amita Sharma and Anjum Chopra had achieved the milestone.

169 – The first wicket partnership of 169 runs by Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt is the highest opening partnership against India in Women’s ODIs. Before them, Alex Blackwell and Shelley Nitschke had added 140 runs in the Canberra ODI, 2008.

2 – The partnership between Lee and Wolvaardt was also the second-highest for the first wicket by any pair in India. Thirush Kamini and Punam had earlier added 175 runs against West Indies in Mumbai ODI, 2013.

2014 – The last time the Indian women’s team lost to South Africa at home was in 2014. They had won their last 3 matches at home against the Proteas women before today’s encounter.

59  – Today’s loss was also the biggest loss for the Indian Women’s team against South Africa in terms of balls remaining (59). The Proteas team had earlier defeated India with 53 balls to spare in Bengaluru ODI 2014.

146 – Shabnim Ismail picked 3 wickets in the match taking her ODI wickets tally to 146. She is now the joint seventh most successful ODI bowler in women’s cricket.