South Africa Women vs India Women Highlights: South Africa won with Cape’s unbeaten inning of 81 runs, India lost in a thrilling match

New Delhi. In the 18th match of Group A of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, South Africa defeated India by 6 wickets in a thrilling match. Batting first, India scored a challenging score of 158 runs after losing 7 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Captain Laura Wolvaardt (20 runs) and Tajmin Britts (40 runs) gave a steady start to the South African team chasing the target, but Indian bowler Shri Charani gave a shock to the opposition batting order by bowling brilliantly. Charani took 3 important wickets for just 24 runs in her 4 over spell and tried her best to push South Africa on the backfoot, in which Shefali Verma also supported her by taking one wicket.

However, South Africa’s experienced all-rounder Marizanne Kapp stood as the biggest obstacle in the way of India’s victory in this match. He played an unbeaten match-winning inning of 81 runs in just 45 balls, which included 7 fours and 4 skyscraper sixes. Indian bowling looked completely ineffective against the onslaught of Cape’s storm and strike rate of 180, especially Deepti Sharma who proved to be very expensive and gave away 44 runs in 4 overs. In the end, Chloe Tryon also scored unbeaten 10 runs with the help of two fours in 4 balls and South Africa won the match by scoring 161 runs losing 4 wickets in 19.1 overs. This is India’s first defeat in three matches in this World Cup, while this is South Africa’s second win in three matches.

India scored 158 runs for 7 wickets
Earlier, India scored 158 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs on a difficult and unevenly bouncy pitch with the help of Deepti Sharma’s 29 runs and captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s 24 runs. Opener Shefali Verma scored 31 runs in 15 balls. India lost the first wicket in the form of vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, when the score was 30 runs. But after this, due to poor shot selection it became 83 runs for four wickets. Then both the senior players took over the innings by adding 33 runs for the fifth wicket. Deepti scored 29 runs in 21 balls which included three fours. But she got out while trying to play a sweep shot.

Harmanpreet created history
Whereas Harmanpreet scored 24 runs in 22 balls, becoming the first cricketer to play 200 T20 International matches in both men’s and women’s cricket. The process of falling of Indian wickets started with the dismissal of Mandhana (17 runs in 12 balls, three fours) on the ball of Marizanne Kapp (2 wickets for 27 runs). She moved ahead of the wicket to play the shot, but could not make contact with the ball and the ball hit her stumps directly. Mandhana had hit two consecutive fours on the balls of Shabnim Ismail (two wickets for 28 runs).

Ismail sent pavilion to Shefali Verma
Shefali (four fours, one six) adopted an aggressive stance against Chloe Tryon due to which India scored 17 runs in the fourth over. But due to Ismail’s brilliant bowling, Shefali had to return to the pavilion. South Africa’s experienced bowler bowled a fast and dangerous ball coming in, due to which the Indian player had to bend down and take cover. The South African player was hesitant in taking a review for the catch behind the wicket but it proved to be the right decision as ‘ultra-edge’ confirmed that the ball had touched the gloves.

Even Richa Ghosh could not do wonders
After this Ayabonga Khaka gave out LBW to Yastika Bhatia (15). Nadine de Klerk took a brilliant return catch of Jemimah Rodrigues (12) and dismissed her and in the 11th over, India’s score was reduced to 83 runs for four wickets. Harmanpreet had a chance to handle the faltering innings but she could score only 24 runs and while playing a shot on Ismail’s ball, she hit the ball on her own wicket. Richa Ghosh was also among those players who could not take advantage of the good start. He scored 15 runs in 14 balls.