India posted their highest ever score against South Africa but still suffered a nine-wicket defeat at the hands of the home side, with skipper Laura Wolvaardt scoring a brilliant century in the third Women’s T20 International against South Africa here on Wednesday.

In this way, South Africa took an unassailable 3-0 lead and won the five-match series. The remaining two WT20Is in Johannesburg and Benoni are now irrelevant.

INDW vs SAW: Highlights of 3rd T20 match

Electing to bat, India scored 192 for 4 – their highest ever score against South Africa – with captain Harmanpreet Kaur and opener Shafali Verma scoring 66 and 64 runs respectively.

But, South Africa captain Wolvaardt scored 115 runs in just 53 balls, while her opening partner Sune Luus scored unbeaten 64 runs in 42 balls against the poor Indian bowlers and easily achieved the target of 193 runs with 21 balls to spare and took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. South Africa reached 193 runs for 1 wicket in 16.3 overs.

This was the third highest successful run chase in women’s T20I history after West Indies and England scored 212 and 198 runs against Australia and India respectively in 2023 and 2018.

Wolvaardt, who has been in top form in the series after scoring 51 and 54 in the first two matches, toyed with the Indian bowlers, hitting 14 fours and five sixes.

Luus, who scored 13 and 57 runs in the first two matches, hit six fours and two sixes.

The South African pair were put together at 183 runs for the first wicket before Wolvaardt was out in the 16th over.

India’s experienced all-rounder Deepti Sharma once again failed with the ball in search of her first wicket in the series. She returned with figures of 0/46 in 3.3 overs on Wednesday.

Earlier, captain Harmanpreet Kaur and opener Shafali Verma scored half-centuries, helping India score 192 runs for 4 wickets with a better batting performance.

Shafali continued her brilliant performance and scored her second consecutive half-century while Harmanpreet’s first half-century in the series. He scored unbeaten 47 and 12 runs in the first two matches, losing which India fell 0-2 in the five-match series.

Harmanpreet scored 66 runs in 38 balls in which she hit seven fours and three sixes.

Shafali, who has scored 34 and 57 in the first two matches of the five-match series for India, displayed solid batting and scored 64 runs from 46 balls, hitting eight fours and two sixes.

She made a partnership of 68 runs for the first wicket with her senior partner Smriti Mandhana (37 runs on 25 balls) and 73 runs for the third wicket with Harmanpreet. She tried to take a catch on Nadine de Klerk’s Nonkululeko Mlaba short ball in the 16th over.

Harmanpreet, who was playing dangerously early on, then took charge and hit some powerful hits. She was run out on the last ball of the Indian innings.

Richa Ghosh remained unbeaten after scoring 18 runs on 10 balls.

Star opener Smriti Mandhana got the start but once again failed to score big. Mandhana was going strong in Shafali’s company as the opening pair had scored 51 runs without any loss at the end of the powerplay.

But the course of the game changed when Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues (0) were out on two consecutive balls in the ninth over bowled by Mlaba.

Mandhana failed to cross the boundary and was out after scoring 37 runs in 25 balls. She and Shefali were together till 68 runs.

On the next ball, Jemimah Rodrigues failed to control her sweep shot and was out for a duck as India’s score suddenly dropped to 68 for 2.

Brief Score:

India: 192 for 4 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 64, Harmanpreet Kaur 66; Nonkululeko Mlaba 2/31).

South Africa: 193 runs for 1 wicket in 16.3 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 115, Sune Luus 64 not out; Shreyanka Patil 1/30).

– ends