Thrilling and teary end for Indian women's cricket team

India players wear a dejected look after their loss to South Africa at Christchurch yesterday. Pic/AFP

An inconsistent India crashed out of the Women's World Cup after suffering a heart-breaking three-wicket defeat against South Africa in a must-win league-stage game that went down to the wire, here on Sunday.

Smriti Mandhana (71), Shafali Verma (53) and skipper Mithali Raj (68) struck half-centuries, setting the platform for India to reach a competitive 274-7 at the Hagley Oval.

Despite India's average bowling and fielding, the match lasted the full distance with off-spinner Deepti Sharma needing to defend seven runs in the final over.

A well-set Mignon du Preez was caught in the deep off the penultimate ball, raising hopes of a memorable win for India. The Proteas now needed three runs off the final ball.

Crucial no-ball call

However, moments later the umpires ruled that Deepti had overstepped, turning India's ecstasy into agony in a matter of seconds.
Du Preez eventually hit the winning runs off the final ball and remained unbeaten on 52 to see her team through and finish second in the league stage behind Australia.

In possibly her last match for India, skipper Mithali Raj was left devastated along with her teammates.

India were not consistent enough to make the semi-finals and ended fifth in the league stage with three wins and four losses.

South Africa were cruising in their run chase with the in-form Laura Wolvaardt (80 off 79) and Lara Goodall (49 off 69) sharing 125 runs for the second wicket.

India rely heavily on veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami for early breakthroughs and her absence due to a side strain made the task easier for the South Africans.

Wolvaardt shines for Proteas

Harmanpreet Kaur, who made 48 with the bat, got rid of opener Lizelle Lee (6) with a brilliant direct hit before Wolvaardt and Goodall got together and took the game away from the opposition.

Wolvaardt continued her sensational run of form with her fifth 50-plus score in seven innings. It took a double strike from Harmanpreet to bring India back in the game as she found the stumps of Wolvaardt and trapped Sune Luus (22) with her probing off-spin.

Brief scores
India 274-7 in 50 overs (S Mandhana 71, M Raj 68, S Verma 53, H Kaur 48; M Klaas 2-38, S Ismail 2-42) lost to SA 275-7 in 50 overs (L Wolvaardt 80, M du Preez 52', L Goodall 49; H Kaur 2-42, R Gayakwad 2-61) by 3 wickets

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