After losing the first two matches, India Women beat South Africa Women in the third T20I, at the Ekana Stadium, Lucknow, by nine wickets. In fact, they batted second in only two matches out of eight across the two formats: they have won both and lost the other six. Here are the marks out of 10 for the Indians.
Shafali Verma: 9 (M 3, R 130, SR 157)
Verma played international cricket after over a year. An innings-by-innings progression – 23 in 22 balls, 47 in 31, 60 in 30 – demonstrates her progression back to the top. A whopping 108 of her 130 runs came in boundaries. Over the course of the series, she had reclaimed her position at the top of the ICC rankings.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad: 9 (M 3, W 4, Econ 4.75)
For a long time, Gayakwad had been left out of T20 Internationals by India. That changed just over a year ago. Since then she has gone from strength to strength. Her loop, accuracy, ability to deceive batters, and a dangerous arm-ball made her the best bowler from either side here.
Radha Yadav: 8 (M 2, W 2, Econ 6.12)
Radha missed a match, but when she played, she demonstrated why she is a champion in the format. They may both be left-arm spinners, but Radha and Rajeshwari compliment each other well.
Richa Ghosh: 7.5 (M 3, R 49, SR 140, C 1)
Ghosh had a blast in the second outing, slamming eight fours in her 44 not out. Gets half a point for keeping wickets in the final match, thus helping improve the team balance.
Harleen Deol: 7 (M 3, R 87, SR 101, W 2, Econ 9)
Deol played a couple of cameos, albeit uncharacteristically slow ones. She also got a couple of wickets while going for runs. Did not ace either role but did a decent all-round job.
Smriti Mandhana: 7 (M 3, R 66, SR 143)
Mandhana had been getting starts throughout the two series but seldom got a decent score. That came in the final match, when one trademark stroke followed another. Led well in Harmanpreet Kaur’s absence.
Arundhati Reddy: 6.5 (M 3, W 2, Econ 6.53)
Loses half a point for that no-ball, but bowled generally well, taking the pace just enough to prevent the big shots.
Jemimah Rodrigues: 4 (M 3, R 46, SR 110)
Two cameos. None of them at great pace, but runs nevertheless. Looked better than in the ODIs.
Simran Bahadur: 4 (M 3, W 1, Econ 7.33)
A decent, if unspectacular, debut, where she bowled stump-to-stump without being spectacular. Her only off day came in the only match when she got a wicket.
Deepti Sharma: 2 (M 3, R 10, SR 77, W 1, Econ 7.90)
Faced 13 balls in the series. Neither got out nor scored runs quickly. Did not do anything special in her 10 overs.
Poonam Yadav: 2 (M 1, Econ 6.50)
India’s best bowler in the format ended the series with figures of 2-0-13-0. Not poor, but India were defending a low total.
Nuzhat Parween (M 2), Ayushi Soni (M 1): No point
Three matches between them but no appearance on the scorecards.