Centurion T20I: Indian eves eye twin glory in South Africa

Centurion: The Indian women’s cricket team will look to create history when they lock horns with South Africa in the fourth T20I of the five-match series at the SuperSport Park in Centurion here on Wednesday.

India took an early lead in the three-match T20I series when they won the first two matches by seven and nine wickets, respectively.

However, the Women in Blue failed to capitalize on it and allowed South Africa to keep the series alive by slumping to a five-wicket defeat against the hosts in the third T20I in Johannesburg.

Heading into the fourth match, the visitors will look to wrap up the T20I series by taking an unassailable 3-1 lead, something which will make the Hamanpreet Kaur-led side the first to have won two series on a single tour of South Africa.

Earlier, India had clinched the three-match ODI series 2-1 against South Africa.

South Africa women, on the other hand, would be a much more confident unit this time around and would once again aim to rely on seamer Shabnim Ismail, who took her first T20I five-wicket haul in the previous match.

Ismail finished with the brilliant figures of five for 30, the second-best by a South African in the format, to help South Africa get a target which they eventually chased down with six balls to spare.

The two squads are as follows:

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana, Rumeli Dhar, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia, Nuzhat Parween, Pooja Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav

South Africa: Dane van Niekerk (c), Marizanne Kapp, Trisha Chetty, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Shabnim Ismail, Sune Luus, Ayabonga Khaka, Mignon du Preez, Masabata Klaas, Odine Kirsten, Lizelle Lee, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Moseline Daniels.

ANI