Opener Shweta Sehrawat smashed an unbeaten 92 after skipper Shafali Verma blazed away to a 16-ball 45 as India crushed South Africa by seven wickets to start their marketing campaign within the inaugural Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup on a rousing observe in Benoni on Saturday. Set a difficult goal of 167 after South Africa opted to bat first, India had been off to a blazing begin with the opening duo of Shafali and Sehrawat including 77 runs in simply seven overs at Willowmoore Park.

Shafali, who has already performed 51 T20Is, 21 ODIs and two Test matches for the senior group on the worldwide stage, seemed in wonderful contact as she toyed with the South African bowlers and put her facet heading in the right direction for a giant win.

While Shafali went after the bowlers from the phrase go, Sehrawat too maintained an excellent strike charge all through her innings, which got here off 57 balls and included as many as 20 boundaries.

However, having smashed 9 fours and a six in an entertaining keep, Shafali was dismissed by off-spinner Miane Smit firstly of the eighth over. Her strike charge was an unbelievable 281.25 when she acquired out.

This was after the Indian captain additionally shone with the ball, choosing up two wickets to place the brakes on the South African scoring charge. Shafali bowled her full quota of 4 overs and returned with spectacular figures of two/31.

Unperturbed by the departure of Shafali, Sehrawat carried on in identical vein and helped her group cross the road with 21 balls to spare. Sehrawat’s earlier finest was 40 in opposition to the identical opponents.

Earlier, the South Africans too acquired a flying begin with Simone Lourens (61 off 44 balls) and Elandri Janse van Rensburg (23 off 13) placing on 56 runs in solely 4 overs.

Left-arm spinner Sonam Yadav gave India their first breakthrough when she had Rensburg caught behind by Richa Ghosh, who can be a senior India participant.

Shafali, then, acquired into the act by dismissing her counterpart Oluhle Siyo for duck.

Madison Landsman chipped in with 32 off 17 balls, whereas Karabo Meso and Miane Smit made brisk 19 and 16, respectively.

However, the house group was pegged again after top-scorer Lourens was run out within the seventeenth over, an important juncture, as they settled for 166 for 5.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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