South Africa Beat India By 8 Wickets In The 1st ODI

Openers Laura Wolvaardt and Lizelle Lee led South Africa to an eight-wicket win over India after spinner Shabnim Ismail's 3/28 restricted the hosts to 177/9 in the first ODI at the Bharat Ratna Sh

Earlier, Mithali and Harmanpreet put up a 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket that took India past the 100-run mark. Harmanpreet, who is playing her 100th ODI, was especially aggressive, hitting six fours in her 40-run knock. However, she was denied a 12th ODI half-century when she mistimed a lofted shot off South Africa captain Sune Luus and holed out at long off.

Deepti Sharma then stood strong with Mithali and the pair put up 52 runs for the fifth wicket. Mithali was dismissed on 50 in the 38th over after which India lost their last four wickets for 21 runs.

Brief scores: India 177/9 in 50 overs (Mithali Raj 50, Harmanpreet Kaur 30; Shabnim Ismail 3/28) lost to South Africa 178/2 in 40.1 overs (Lizelle Lee 83 not out, Laura Wolvaardt 80, Jhulan Goswami 2/38) by nine wickets with 59 balls remaining.