IND-W vs SA-W : Sneh Rana Scripts History, Becomes First Indian Women Cricketer To...

ind-w vs sa-w : sneh rana scripts history, becomes first indian women cricketer to...

The Indian women's cricket team secured a memorable victory, triumphing over South Africa women by 10 wickets in the solitary Test match held at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium on July 1 (Monday). Sneh Rana was honored as the Player of the Match for her exceptional performance, claiming 10 wickets across both innings, highlighted by an impressive 8-wicket haul.

Star spinner Sneh Rana made history as the first Indian women's bowler to achieve a 10-wicket haul in a Test match. Additionally, she became only the second Indian women's bowler to claim 8 wickets in a single innings. Following the match, she emphasized that perceptions of off-spinners should no longer be underestimated.

“Feeling great to contribute for my team. Amazing feeling, I don't have words to describe my feeling. My body is very fresh (chuckles). It was difficult initially for the spinners as there was no turn on offer. Later on, there was turn and bounce. I want to give credit to the SA batters who batted really well. Hats off to the Indian players. Playing Test match cricket is special and to be the Player of the Match is unbelievable. People think it's easy to play off-spinners but they'll think otherwise after today,” Sneh Rana said in the post-match presentation.

India Women amassed a formidable total of 603 runs in their first innings, propelled by Shafali Verma's double century and Smriti Mandhana's century. They then dismissed South Africa for 266 runs in their first innings, courtesy of Rana's impressive 8-wicket haul, enforcing the follow-on. Despite Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus's brilliant centuries leading a strong comeback for South Africa, surpassing India's lead, their efforts fell short as Indian spinners retaliated, limiting South Africa to 373 runs. With a modest target of 37 runs, Indian openers Shafali Verma and Shubha Satheesh comfortably chased it down in just 9.2 overs during the final session of the last day, securing victory.

“It (the strategy) was literally just about taking it one ball at a time, not even looking at the scoreboard and just to try and bat for as long as we could,” South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt told the press after the Test.

“Obviously, being in the nineties overnight was something weird for me. It wasn’t quite the same getting there (to the hundred) this morning. It was a bit of a weird feeling, only scoring seven runs and then celebrating'', she added.

“It wasn’t something I was thinking about because the goal was just to bat through the day. So I’m glad that the milestone got out of the way early and that I could just focus on batting as long as I could,” the 25-year old further added.