That is the end of an all-format series involving India Women and South Africa Women. India clean swept the three-match ODI series, then won the only Test before drawing the three-match T20I series 1-1. The caravan for the Women in Blue moves to Sri Lanka, where they will participate in the Women's Asia Cup. South Africa Women will be playing in the T20 Wold Cup directly.
For now, this is me AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Akshay Bhide, who, alongside our scorers/analysts Raju Khariya and Chandan Kr Singh, brought you all the live-action of this India dominated clash. We will meet again. Until then, it's cheers!
Harmanpreet Kaur and Laura Wolvaardt receive the trophy. They post for the photographs. The players from both sides along with their captains pose behind the 'Winners' board. The support staff members join them.
Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women Captain): "We spoke about things we need to improve, especially when we are playing T20 cricket (after the defeat in the first T20I).
Proud of the way we bowled and fielded. That is something we spoke about in our meetings.
Moving forward, we might find ourselves in similar situations where we have to work hard and keep believing. Everyone had the belief that we had it in us; we were positive. We played as a team and did well as a team.
Smriti Mandhana really had a good series, and in the Test, Shafali Verma came up with a good approach.
We talked about getting chances and doing well. Everyone looked positive. The self-belief was there to change the game. We want to do well in the Asia Cup. We keep things simple. This team has a lot of talent.
Amol Muzumdar Sir is very cool; he keeps things simple. The fielding coach is working hard, and Avi Salvi, the bowling coach, is also calm.
This is the best sports support staff I have ever worked with. The selectors and BCCI are also supporting us. We want to do the right thing."
Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa Women Captain): "Yes, disappointing loss. Not the way we would have liked to end the series. It was stopping a bit when we were batting.
Overall, we are taking a lot of learnings from the series. In the first two games, we were good with the bat. I feel we went too hard too early tonight. Take some time upfront. We failed to adapt to the conditions.
A couple of us are off to the Hundred. Rest of them will have the camp back home. We will be looking forward to the World Cup in a couple of months.
Thanks for having us."
Pooja Vastrakar (POTM & POTS): "It was an opportunity for me, and whatever I practised in the nets - bowling wicket-to-wicket - I executed. Hard lengths helped me as well.
The team felt I should be given the new ball as an opportunity and a responsibility. I wanted to pick up early wickets and give the team a good startβjust what the team needed.
Such lengths will be effective in Sri Lanka (in the Asia Cup). We want to perform similarly well in the Asia Cup. Tonight, we tried to bowl to our strengths and give our best. All bowlers did well and executed the plans very well."