India Women’s U19 (B) win a low scoring thriller

India Women’s U19 (B) held their nerves in the low scoring encounter against South Africa Women’s U19 on Wednesday in Pune as the hosts chased a tricky total of 97 with just three balls to spare and two wickets in hand.

Batting first, the visitors were reduced to a paltry 96/8 in 20 overs, courtesy of a disciplined bowling performance and fantastic fielding effort from the home team. Besides the wicket-keeper-batter Karabo Meso’s 49-ball 40, none of the other batters looked in shape. Quite contrary to their outing against India Women’s U19 (A) on Tuesday, South Africa failed to repeat their dominance with the bat. On the other hand, for India, the right arm speedster Anandita Kishor stood out with the ball picking up two wickets, striking twice in the fourth over, including the priced scalp of skipper Kayla Reyneke, who scored a half-century in the previous match. The Indian team was also electric on the field as they inflicted three run outs.

In what could have been an easy run chase, India made a mountain of a molehill. They took as many as 19.3 overs and eight wickets to overhaul the innocuous target. Opening batter and wicket-keeper G Kamalini led the run chase from the front with a patient 40-ball 37. Captain Niki Prasad (11) and Aayushi Shukla (11) were the only other two batters to score in double digits. For South Africa, Ashleigh Van Wyk was the pick of the bowlers as she snapped three wickets to give some hope to her team to defend the total.

Brief Scores: South Africa Women’s U19 96/8 in 20 overs (K Meso 40; A Kishor 2/15) lost to India Women’s U19 (B) 98/8 in 19.3 overs (G Kamalini 37; A Van Wyk 3/19) by 2 wickets