South Africa fail spin test again to concede the T20I series to India

South Africa might have realised that the hard way after they failed yet another spin-test to go down against India by 51 runs in the fourth T20I at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday (October 1). By virtue of the win, India take an unassailable 2-0 lead with a game to go.
Put in to bat, openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana found the going tough. Off the second ball, Verma finally got off the mark in international cricket with a glide to third man. The pitch appeared to be a slow one with a bit of extra bounce.
Off the first ball Mandhana faced, she got a Shabnim Ismail pacy delivery that climbed up a bit more than expected. Mandhana was hurried into her attempted cross-batted heave. She ended up skying it but the ball landed between Ismail, who herself ran back, and mid-off, who ran in.
That set the tone of the innings as South Africa dropped as many as four catches inside the first four overs. That helped the openers get a decent measure of the track. They showed they did that by putting on 52 in seven overs.
Nadine de Klerk, who had dropped Mandhana on five, then returned to see off the opener. The southpaw sliced one straight to Mignon du Preez for 13. She had taken 19 balls in the process and clearly didn’t look herself for a large part of her stay.
Meanwhile, in the company of Jemimah Rodrigues, Verma started to get into her groove. Both teenagers, Rodrigues let her junior partner take most of the strike. Verma looked on course to get to her maiden fifty. She was finding the boundary at will. Surat had come alive.
Verma was a beneficiary of two dropped catches during her stint in the middle. The first one was when she was on five. Lara Goodall, who replaced Nondumiso Shangase as the lone change for the tourists, spilled a simple catch at mid-on, while Laura Wolvaardt parried one over the rope when the Indian opener was on 40.
However, later in the over, she chopped one off the inside edge onto her pads. Verma had missed her maiden international fifty by just four runs in her 33-ball stay in the middle.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur then walked in and looked the part immediately. Hitting a couple of fours and a six, she then departed in a bid to hit another biggie off de Klerk. In the nine balls she faced, she had scored 16.
 
Jemimah Rodrigues made a vital contribution in the middle order. ©Getty Images
 
At that point, India were three down for 89 with just over six overs to go. It seemed as if the middle order would be found wanting again and India would end up with a total lower than what they looked to be promising. But Rodrigues was in the middle and she found her groove at the right time. The right-hander picked gaps at will and found the rope regularly.
By the time she as cleaned up by Ayabonga Khaka for 33, India had 129 on the board. Deepti Sharma’s unbeaten 16-ball 20 then meant that the hosts finished with 140. The innings was capped off by another dropped catch – this time Pooja Vastrakar being the beneficiary. South Africa had spilled seven catches in all.
Ismail, the experienced campaigner, finished wicketless, but was the only South African bowler to have an economy rate under six. De Klerk’s two wickets for 24 were the next best, but she had bled runs at eight per over.
Chasing 141 for a series-levelling win, the visitors got off to an unfortunate start. In the second over, there was a mix-up between Lizelle Lee and Tasmin Brits and Vastrakar’s direct hit found the former short.
The 39-run partnership that followed – between Brits and Wolvaardt – was the best for the visitors. The duo managed to keep the Indian bowlers at bay for about six overs.
The slow left arm spin of Radha Yadav was the one to send the latter back, slicing one over backward point - Rodrigues completed a good catch running backwards. From thereon, there was hardly anything for South Africa to write home about - they miserably failed their trial by spin.
Poonam Yadav, for the second time in two games, got two wickets in two balls – including the key wicket of du Preez – to kill the run-chase. From one for 49, they were reduced to seven for 85, with Poonam taking three wickets. She was the pick of the Indian bowlers with three for 13. Radha had two wickets to show as well.
Earlier, wet outfield had delayed the match by an hour. As a result, it was a 17 overs-a-side contest.
Brief Scores: India 140/4 in 17 overs (Shafali Verma 46, Jemimah Rodrigues 33; Nadine de Klerk 2/24) beat South Africa 89/7 in 17 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 23, Tazmin Brits 20; Poonam Yadav 3/13, Radha Yadav 2/16) by 51 runs.