First Time In 51 Years! Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur Shine As India vs South Africa Sees Historic Feat

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana slammed a century each and pacer Pooja Vastrakar bowled a superb final over as India Women defeated South Africa by four runs in a well-fought second One-day International that ended in a thriller and gave India an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Mandhana struck a 120-ball 136, a century in her second successive match, and shared a 171-run partnership for the third wicket with Harmanpreet Kaur, who hammered an unbeaten 103 off 88 balls as India posted a massive 325/3 in 50 overs. Opener Shafali Verma (20), Dayalan Hemalatha (24) and Richa Ghosh (25 not out) were the other scorers for India as they made the most of the opportunity after being asked to bat first by South Africa.

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt scored a run-a-ball 135 while Marizanne Kapp blasted a 94-ball 114 to keep South Africa in the hunt. But the visitors lost the way in the last couple of overs and were restricted to 321/6 in 50 overs as India won the match which is part of the ICC Women's Championship. Since, women's ODIs started in 1973, this is the first time that four batters have scored a ton in one match.

South Africa were struggling at 67/3 at one stage before Kapp and Wolvaardt shared a superb partnership to not only revive the innings but also raise hopes of a victory in the high-scoring slugfest.

Chasing a massive 326, South Africa lost Tanzim Brits (5), Anneke Bosch (15) and Sune Luus (12) early and were struggling at 67/3 in the 15th over before Kapp and Wolvaardt came together to raise 184 runs for the fourth wicket partnership and take them to 251 when Kapp was out. The 34-year-old Kapp hammered 11