India struggle to 188 all out despite Mithali's unbeaten 79
Lucknow: Mithali Raj played a captain's knock by hitting a well-crafted 79 not out as India struggled to 188 all out against South Africa in the fifth and final women's ODI here on Wednesday.
Put into bat, Mithali steered India's innings after India lost three early wickets with the scoreboard reading 53 in the 13th over.
Together with Harmanpreet Kaur (30), who retired hurt following cramps, Mithali shared 71 runs for the fourth wicket before the former left the ground in the 31st over.
India lost opener Priya Punia (18) early before India's star batswoman of the series Punam Raut (10) and Smriti Mandhana (18) departed in successive overs.
Dayalan Hemalatha (2) and Sushma Verma (0) failed to provide the much-needed support to Mithali as the veteran Indian batter brought up her second fifty of the series and 55th overall in 78 balls in the 38th over.
Jhulan Goswami (5) and Monica Patel (9) too didn't trouble the scorers much as Mithali kept India's innings going single-handedly.
Debutant Challuru Prathyusha (2) also failed to make a mark as India slumped to 176 for eight by the end of the 47th over. Mithali was left stranded at one hand as India kept on wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out in 49.3 overs.
Mithali's unbeaten 104-ball knock was studded with eight boundaries and one hit over the fence.
Medium pacer Nadine de Klerk was the pick of the bowlers for South Africa with figures of three for 35.
Off-spinner Nondumiso Shangase (2/43), Marizanne Kapp (1/25) and Tumi Sekhukhune (2/26) also chipped in with useful contributions to restrict the Indians under the 200-run mark.
South Africa had already pocketed the five-match series with victory in the fourth ODI.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
