India Women vs South Africa Women, 2019: 3-match ODI series – Statistical Preview

After a 1-3 defeat in the 6-match T20I series, the South Africa Women will face India Women in the 3-match ODI series starting on Wednesday. The happiness of sealing a big series win didn’t last long for India who were rattled in the last game by a hugest of margins. India Women’s batting collapses have been major talking points over the last 1-2 years. Adding to their misery, Smriti Mandhana has been ruled out of this 3-match ODI series due to an injury she caught up during the practice. Mandhana has been India’s prolific run-scorer for India over the last two years.

All the key stats and numbers that matter ahead of the Women’s ODI series between India and South Africa:

1 – South Africa Women faced India Women in India during a bilateral ODI series only once thus far. The two teams appeared in the 2014 series which the visitors won by 2-1 margin. The head to head record in ODI format in India between South Africa Women and India Women is leveled at 2-2.

Overall, both the teams clashed off in four ODI bilateral series with South African Women winning in three while India Women winning the recent most series held in South Africa last year.

3 – Number of players whose ODI career lasted at least 20 years in both Men’s and Women’s cricket. Mithali Raj is set to join this list and become the first woman when he leads India in this ODI series. Mithali will complete 20 years of ODI cricket on Wednesday as she made her debut in this format during June 1999.

4 – India Women have won each of their last four ODI series. They defeated Sri Lanka and New Zealand away from home and England Women twice at home in the last 18 months. All four series had a scoreline of 2-1 in India’s favour.

This is their joint-longest series winning streak in this format as they won four consecutive ODI series/tournaments heading into the 2017 Women’s World Cup. This is also the 2nd time that India Women won four consecutive bilateral ODI series. They won five bilateral series in a row between 1999 and 2002.

20+ – Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey are the only two players to have bagged more than 15 wickets in India-South Africa ODI matches. Goswami took 23 wickets from 14 ODIs while Shikha picked up 21 wickets from only 21 matches against South Africa Women.

62 – Smriti Mandana is set to miss the ODI series after suffering an injury. She has featured in all 62 International matches played by India since the start of the Women’s World Cup in 2017. India played 27 ODI matches and 35 T20Is in this period with only Poonam Yadav and Mandhana being part of all matches.

516 – Mithali Raj has scored 516 runs in the India-South Africa ODI matches; nearly 200 runs more than any other players. She scored those runs from 16 innings at an average of 39.69 with six fifties. South Africa is one of two opponents against which Mithali failed to average 40 with the bat.