NEW DELHI: India produced yet another outstanding display as they defeated South Africa by six wickets and won the three-match Women's ODI series 3-0 in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Smriti Mandhana set up the 216-run chase with her outstanding performance at the top, before she was dismissed for a 83-ball 90 that had 11 boundaries.
Before Richa Ghosh completed the chase with a six off Tumi Sekhukhune in the 41st over, captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored 42 off 48 balls. India triumphed with 56 balls remaining.
Laura Wolvaardt, the captain, had earlier hit 61 before South Africa's batting collapse resulted in a disappointing 215/8.
For India, Arundhati Reddy and Deepti Sharma each claimed two wickets.
It was Deepti Sharma's two clean bowled dismissals in one over that derailed South Africa innings.
Bowling the 43rd over, Deepti first clean bowled Nadine de Klerk with a short of length delivery that kept slightly low and turned less. De Klerk looked to pull off the back foot, the ball curled in ever so slightly and kept low to crash into the stumps.
On the next ball, Nonkululeko Mlaba was cleaned up for a first ball duck with a classic looping off-break that spun in sharply from outside off. Mlaba came on the front foot to defend but the ball sneaked through the bat-pad gap to hit the middle stump.
After the South Africa innings, Deepti Sharma, who was adjudged the Player of the Match, said, "Whenever I get to bowl, I always think about how to break partnerships. I was trying to do that today and eventually, I was able to do that. It depends on the situation, if there's a partnership going on, I think about how to break the partnership and also how to contain them. It felt good, I didn't get much turn initially but I focused on my variations and I got the wickets."
