A dramatic game came down to the final ball, with South Africa’s captain taking on India’s key death bowler, and there could be only one winner
Srinidhi Ramanujam20-Jun-2024Imagine being in Laura Wolvaardt’s place.Wednesday night. Bengaluru. A young captain, she had been on the field for more than seven hours – first marshalling her troops on a sunny afternoon and then getting all the gear on and batting through the chase of 326.After 99 overs on the field, the job – her job – was not done yet. It looked like it would be, though.South Africa needed 11 runs to pull off the highest successful chase in women’s ODIs and stay alive in the three-match series against India. The memories of the landmark Potchefstroom game, where she made 184 not out and yet ended up losing after a Chamari Athapaththu epic, must have been fresh in the mind. But, in Bengaluru, she was all set to rewrite the record books. She was on the cusp of something special.Related
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It had looked improbable at the halfway stage with South Africa at 120 for 3. But Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp took the game deep, both scoring centuries.Coming into the final over, Wolvaardt was on 134 off 133 balls – after scoring 46 off her first 66 deliveries. Kapp was gone, for a 94-ball 114. They had brought the team here from 67 for 3 in the 15th over. It was 315 for 4 with one over to go. Wolvaardt had to finish the game.And she might have, too…The final over from Pooja Vastrakar, India’s key death bowler, captured the seesawing emotions of one of the most dramatic women’s ODIs.Vastrakar, who had conceded 15 runs in her previous over – the 48th – began with a juicy full toss. Wolvaardt would have and should have put that away for a boundary. All she could do was squeeze it out to deep midwicket for a single to give strike to Nadine de Klerk. At this stage, de Klerk had hit a six and a four in her 20-ball stay. She had done it before, including at the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy last month, where she had blazed an unbeaten 106.Wolvaardt could trust her.Vastrakar bowled another full toss, and de Klerk backed away on the drive, and got a thick edge past the keeper. With short third inside the ring, the ball raced away to the boundary. The crowd was stunned into silence. It was still a thriller, but it wasn’t going the way of their team.South Africa were on top. But Vastrakar took pace off, bowled it full and outside off stump, and de Klerk fell into the trap. She couldn’t get the timing right and ended up dragging it straight down to long-on where Arundhati Reddy completed the catch.Twist in the tale. A dot too.Nondumiso Shangase was out there next. All she had to do was take a single and give the strike back to Wolvaardt for the last two balls. Dab and run. Vastrakar went with a back-of-the-hand slower ball, short and wide, and with no pace to work with, Shangase made contact high on the bat while looking for a cut shot and the ball looped straight to Harmanpreet Kaur at cover point.The previous wicket hadn’t done enough, but this did. Not because it was a wicket, but because it was a dot. The Bengaluru crowd now found its voice.Wolvaardt was still at the non-striker’s end. Stranded. Watching it go up in smoke.Laura Wolvaardt became the fourth batter to score a century in the game, but couldn’t take South Africa over the line•BCCIWolvaardt had to get on strike. She walked up to Meike de Ridder, the new batter, a debutant, and told her what she expected from her.In came another slower delivery. De Ridder was looking for a reverse lap but failed to connect. Wolvaardt had already started running. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh took a bit of time to collect the ball and throw it at the striker’s end, and Wolvaardt had scrambled home by then.After 437 minutes of riveting battle, it all come down to this, the last ball. Vastrakar. Wolvaardt. Five (or six, really) for a win and four for a tie. Anything less wasn’t enough.Vastrakar ran in for one last time. Wolvaardt waited.Would it be the yorker that she had missed twice earlier in the over? Or one of the short balls Vastrakar bowls at the death? Or another slower one?It was a short-of-a-length slower, wide of off stump. Wolvaardt swung hard. She missed.A moment’s hush, and then the Chinnaswamy crowd and the Indian team erupted.Wolvaardt was distraught – from the moment she knew she had failed.Harmanpreet ran out of India’s huddle to shake her hand. Wolvaardt had now been on the wrong end of a brutal chase twice, first in Potchefstroom and now in Bengaluru.It was one of the greatest ODI games in recent times, with four extraordinary centuries and 646 runs. Smriti Mandhana picked up a wicket off her first over in ODIs. India posted their highest ODI total at home. There were many records. And that last over. And the last ball.But imagine being in Wolvaardt’s place. That would have been an emotional rollercoaster like no other.
