Women’s World Cup 2022 group match, India vs South Africa Stats Review: Mithali Raj jumps to second spot, Wolvaardt’s joint-best score, and other stats

Mithali Raj and her Indian side suffered heartbreak as South Africa defeated the Asian giants by three wickets in the final league match of the World Cup at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. With this result, India’s World Cup campaign is over as they are eliminated while the Proteas join Australia, West Indies, and England in the last four. Mignon du Preez kept her cool as he made an unbeaten 52 runs off 63 balls to seal the deal for her team.

Talking about how the thrilling match panned out, Mithali Raj had won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both struck fifties as they added 91 runs for the first wicket. Veterans Mithali and Harmanpreet Kaur scored 68 and 48 runs respectively as India finished their innings with a competitive total of 274/7 in the 50 overs. In reply, Laura Wolvaardt stole the show as she made breezy 80 runs off 79 deliveries which included 11 fours.

Lara Goodall contributed with her knock of 49 runs off 69 balls. Marizanne Kapp then joined hands with du Preez by playing a crucial inning of 32 runs. The match went down to the wire and with three runs needed off the last two balls, du Preez holed out at the boundary off the bowling of Deepti Sharma but only for Sharma to overstep.

It broke the hearts of all the Indian fans around the world as du Preez smashed the winning runs to put an end to India’s World Cup campaign. Du Preez as adjudged with the Player of the Match award as an exciting final match of the league stage came to an end.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the Women’s World Cup 2022 group stage, India vs South Africa:

51 – Masabata Klaas completed 50 wickets in ODIs.

1321 – Mithali Raj (1321) surpassed Janette Brittin (1299) and is now the second-highest run-getter in the World Cups.

652 – Smriti Mandhana (652) completed 650 fours across formats.

80 – Laura Wolvaardt recorded her joint-highest score (80) against India in 16 ODIs.

1 – Mithali (13) also went past Debbie Hockley (12) and is now at the top for scoring the most 50 plus scores in the World Cups.

3503 – Laura Wolvaardt reached 3500 runs in international cricket.

52 – Shafali Verma (52) also reached 50 fours in the ODI format.

80 – Wolvaardt also registered the fifth-best individual score by a South African batter in World Cup history.

1 – Mithali (12) also overtook Hockley (11) and has now registered the most fifties in World Cup tournaments.

100 – Masabata Klaas appeared in her 100th international match.

2 – South Africa achieved the target on the match’s last ball, which happened just for the second time in World Cups. The other instance was by Sri Lanka against England in the 2013 edition.

100 – Harmanpreet Kaur batted in her 100th inning in the 50-over format.