Indian women lose 5th ODI to South Africa by 5 wickets, concede series 1-4
Lucknow: India women suffered a five-wicket defeat in the fifth and final ODI against their South African counterparts to lose the series 1-4 here on Wednesday.
India skipper Mithali Raj top-scored with an unbeaten 79 off 104 balls while Harmanpreet Kaur retired hurt after scoring 30 before the hosts were all out for 188.
Nadine de Klerk was the standout bowler for South Africa, taking three wickets for 35 runs in 10 overs.
South Africa overhauled the target with 10 balls to spare with Mignon du Preez (57) and Anneke Bosch (58) scoring half-centuries.
Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gaikwad dished out an exceptional performance as she gave away just 13 runs in her 10 overs and took three wickets, making it tough for the Proteas.
India, however, did not have a decent enough total to defend.
Brief Scores:
India Women: 188 all out in 49.3 overs (Mithali Raj 79 not out; Nadine de Klerk 3/35, Tumi Sekhukhune 2/26).
South Africa Women: 189 for 5 in 48.2 overs. (A Bosch 58, Du Preez 57; R Gaikwad 3/13).
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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.
