Harmanpreet urges calm as India slip to 0-2 deficit against South Africa

India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur is not overly worried about her team’s patchy form in the T20 format as they continue preparing for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. India’s struggles continued as they lost their second successive T20I and third of the year, going down by eight wickets to South Africa in Durban on Sunday.

The defeat put them 0-2 behind in the five-match series with less than two months to go before the World Cup begins on June 12 in England and Wales.

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While Harmanpreet admitted that the team has not been at its best, she made it clear that there is still enough time for course correction before the global tournament, urging the group to stay united during this phase. “Tough time. We as a team need to stay together,” she said at the post-match presentation.

Trailing 0-2 in the series, the visitors will be looking to bounce back strongly when they travel to Johannesburg for the third and fourth matches, to be played on April 22 and 25, respectively. The series culminates with the fifth and final T20I in Benoni on April 27.

“Hopefully, we’ll go (to Johannesburg) with a positive approach. T20 format is like that: it’s about staying together,” Kaur said.

India did have a promising start with the bat at Kingsmead, thanks to an aggressive half-century from Shafali Verma, who scored 57. However, the innings lost momentum in the latter half as wickets kept falling, and India were eventually bowled out for 147 after being put in to bat. That total proved insufficient as South Africa chased it down comfortably. Skipper Laura Wolvaardt (54) and Sune Luus(57) stitched together a 106-run opening stand, taking the game away from India and sealing the win with ease.

India’s performance in the field also hurt their chances, with several missed opportunities adding to their troubles. Harmanpreet acknowledged that both batting and bowling need quick fixes if the team is to stay alive in the series.

“I think with the bat, we were not able to contribute the way we wanted. Last 10 overs of the innings we did not bat well. We need to think about how we go about the next three matches. When you’re not getting the shots, rotating strike is a key point. We were discussing… we can rotate strike and it can help us through that time. But it’s a time when things didn’t work.

“Powerplay, while bowling, is not going our way,” Kaur said.

Shafali echoed her captain’s views and remained confident that the team can bounce back quickly, both in the remaining matches of the series and at the World Cup.

“We all know our strengths. We will just come back hard and we will just stand shoulder to shoulder and we will practice more and practice hard. We have a two days break and we will get back together and we will do well and we will come back harder,” Shafali noted.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead, South Africa skipper Wolvaardt also pointed out areas her team needs to refine ahead of the World Cup, particularly in the field.

“Pretty good catching, one or two put down, but we took one or two good ones as well. After they had, restricting them was great,” Wolvaardt said.

She also credited her bowling unit, with Chloe Tryon (3/22) and Tumi Sekhukhune (3/31) playing key roles in keeping India in check. “The area we struggled with last season (death bowling), bowlers identified bowling slower ones into the wicket was helping. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about. Being present on the cricket field. Little things showing on the field,” Wolvaardt said.