Marizanne Kapp shone with the ball and then with the bat as South Africa upstaged India yet again winning by 6 wickets with 5 balls to spare. Marizanne Kapp was special and instrumental with her display aided by unforced errors by India on the field. After being asked to bowl first, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail picked up 2 wickets each to keep the powerful Indian team down to 158/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, South Africa rode on a special performance from Marizanne Kapp aided by a couple of dropped chances of her by India’s substitute fielder Radha Yadav as Kapp and Tazmin Brits combined to put South Africa on track and then help them win the contest by 6 wickets with 5 balls to spare to keep their semis hopes alive and dent India’s chances for sure.
Marizanne Kapp & Shabnim Ismail combine to keep India down to 158/7
Winning the toss and deciding to bat first, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma came out to open the batting for India while Marizanne Kapp had the new ball in hand for South Africa. The Indian openers got off to a flier with both Mandhana and Verma getting off the blocks. The opening duo put on 30 runs for the first wicket before Mandhana was cleaned up by Kapp for 17 off 12 balls with 3 fours to her name. Yastika Bhatia came out to bat next.
Shafali continued her merry ways and continued to play her shots. The duo over Verma and Bhatia put on 24 for the second wicket before Shafali fell for 31 off 15 balls with 4 fours and one six to her name to Shabnim Ismail. Jemimah Rodrigues came out to bat inside the power play as India reached 59/2 in 6 overs of that phase. The duo of Bhatia and Rodrigues added 13 runs for the third wicket before Bhatia fell for 15 off 13 balls with 3 fours to her name to Ayabonga Khaka where the Indians burnt a review as well.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur came out to bat next. Jemimah and Harmanpreet tried to forge some sort of a partnership and they added 16 runs for the fourth wicket before Rodrigues fell for 12 off 14 balls with one four to her name to Nadine de Klerk. Deepti Sharma came out to bat next with India looking under pressure now. Kaur and Deepti took the innings forward and built a partnership in the middle phase of the game. The duo added 33 runs for the 5th wicket before the Indian captain fell for 24 off 22 balls with 2 fours to her name as she played onto the stumps off Ismail.
Keeper batter and finisher Richa Ghosh came out to bat next. Deepti and Richa tried to take on the disciplined South African bowling. The duo still managed to add a quickfire 21 runs for the 6th wicket before Deepti fell for 29 off 21 balls with 3 fours to her name to Nonkululeko Mlaba. Arundhati Reddy joined Richa Ghosh in the middle. Richa played a few shots and was aided by 5 wides as a bonus as well. The duo added 16 runs for the 7th wicket before Richa fell for 15 off 14 balls with 2 fours to her name to Kapp yet again. Debutant Prema Rawat came out to bat.
The duo added a few twos as 5 runs were scored off the last 4 balls as India finished with a below par score of 158/7 in 20 overs. Reddy was unbeaten on 6 off 7 balls while Rawat was unbeaten on 3 off 2 balls. 6 extras in the form of wides given by South African bowlers.
For South Africa’s point of view, Marizanne Kapp was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/27 in 4 overs. Shabnim Ismail supported her with figures of 2/28 in 4 overs. Ayabonga Khaka finished with 1/31 in 4 overs. Nonkululeko Mlaba finished with 1/33 in 4 overs. Nadine de Klerk finished with 1/16 in 2 overs. Chloe Tryon finished with 0/23 in 2 overs. This meant that South Africa needed to chase a challenging 159 runs to win off 20 overs.
Marizanne Kapp’s unbeaten 81 takes South Africa over the finishing line
Chasing 159 for the win, captain Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits came out to bat for South Africa while Shafali Verma had the ball in hand for India. The Proteas made a steady start to the chase as the openers were a tad slow off the blocks against disciplined Indian bowling. The opening duo put on 25 for the first wicket in over 5 overs before the captain Laura fell for 20 off 21 balls with 2 fours and one six to her name to Shree Charani. Annerie Dercksen came out to bat next.
Charani had two in the over as Dercksen was cleaned up for a silver duck in the last over of power play. Marizanne Kapp came out to bat inside the power play as South Africa were 25/2 in 6 overs of power play and so after the first phase it was India who were ahead. But South Africa were yet to throw in the towel now.
It was now going to be the Marizanne Kapp show aided by Brits as they played themselves in and accelerated as well. Brits survived a LBW scare as she got an inside edge and the DRS saved her. Kapp was magnificent and she got into the zone and was determined out there in the middle. Kapp and Brits slowly but steadily took the game away from India. India did not help themselves in the field with a tardy effort.
Kapp was given reprieves as she was dropped thrice. The first one was a real difficult chance as Nandini Sharma almost pulled off a stunner in the deep. But following that in the 12th over, Radha Yadav the substitute fielder known for her good fielding was in the field for Yastika Bhatia. Radha first dropped Kapp when she was on 38 and then later on, with the game on the line she dropped a sitter and Kapp made sure that she would make India pay big time.
The duo of Kapp and Brits took the game away as they put on a match-defining 97-run stand for the third wicket before Brits finally fell for a valuable 40 off 36 balls with 2 fours and one six to her name to the women with the golden arm Shafali Verma who bowled 4 overs. Nadine de Klerk came out to bat next but the game now hinged on Kapp and after giving India chances, she was determined to make the Women in Blue pay. Nadine managed to hit a boundary as she and Kapp added 15 runs for the 4th wicket before the designated finisher fell for 5 off 7 balls with a boundary to her name to Charani.
Chloe Tryon came out to bat next with 22 needed off 13 balls. Tryon got a crucial boundary away initially and then Kapp took charge with 18 needed off 12 balls and tore Deepti apart and made the contest a formality by hitting a couple of maximums to bring the target down to 2 off 6 balls and then Tryon hit an outside edge for a boundary for the winning runs.
The duo added 24 unbeaten runs in no time as South Africa reached 161/4 in 19.1 overs to win by 6 wickets. Kapp was unbeaten on 81 off 45 balls with 7 fours and 4 sixes to her name while Tryon was unbeaten on 10 off 4 balls with 2 fours to her name. 5 extras were given by the Indians.
For India’s point of view, Shree Charani was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/24 in 4 overs. Shafali Verma finished with 1/22 in 4 overs. Nandani Sharma finished with figures of 0/17 in 2.1 overs. Arundhati Reddy finished with 0/29 in 3 overs. Prema Rawat on debut went for 21 runs in 2 overs. Deepti Sharma finished with figures of 0/44 in 4 overs. So, South Africa beat India by 6 wickets to keep their semi-finals hopes alive and dent India’s chances as well. Marizanne Kapp was awarded the Player of the Match Award.
What Lies Ahead
So, India have been given a reality check and have endured a setback. They now have two matches against Bangladesh on 25th June and Australia on 28th June and must win both to progress to the semi-finals while South Africa has relatively easier opponents in Bangladesh and Netherlands. So, advantage South Africa in this semis race over India. Tomorrow is a day-off as action will resume with a triple-header on Tuesday.
Let’s see how things unfold on Tuesday as we enter the last week of the league stage of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026.
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