Unpredictable South Africa next in India's path

On the outskirts of the port city of Vizag, South Africa's only training session ahead of their Women's World Cup 2025 encounter against hosts India unfolded sans the stars and amidst a drizzle. The gruelling schedule is beginning to show - this marks South Africa's third match within a week, each against a team ranked higher in the ICC standings, each at a different venue, and each in a different corner of the country.

India, in an unfair contrast, have enjoyed the luxury of well spaced-out games, and will continue to do so. Vizag, though, marks the beginning of the all-important phase in their campaign. Their next four games - starting with the South Africa one on Thursday (October 9) - are against sides that handed them defeats in the 2022 edition, leading to a league-stage exit. Any slip-ups, they know from experience, can snowball quickly.

While India are unbeaten, the journey so far has been anything but smooth. The scorecards may suggest comfortable wins, but both Sri Lanka and Pakistan posed serious challenges. India were made to work hard for victories that, in the end, look convincing only on paper. The shortcomings of India's 'settled' top-three have been exposed by less-fancied opponents, their batting depth has been tested under pressure, and sub-par fielding has raised fresh concerns.

"How I would put it forth is that it's scary for the opponents to know that we have not had our perfect match yet but we are still on the winning streak." Trust Jemimah Rodrigues to put a positive spin on it. But now is when the stakes rise, and so does the scrutiny. The high dot-ball consumption, the middle-order's struggles against left-arm spin, and the lack of genuine sixth bowling option are all cracks that could widen against the stronger opponents.

And South Africa is as unpredictable as they're intimidating - irrespective of the records or form. India lead 20-12 in their 33-match ODI rivalry (one no-result), and 3-2 in World Cup history. The hosts are also on a five-match winning streak against their Thursday's opponents, but given the past upsets against South Africa in league games of both the preceding editions of the ODI World Cups, India would know better than to take their recent dominance for granted. As much as their trajectories have differed so far, both teams mirror each other in their search for perfect rhythm - and Vizag could nudge one of them closer to it.

When: Thursday, October 9 at 3 PM IST

Where: Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam

What to expect: The rain has been chasing the Indian team around, and the forecast on match day - particularly around match start time - isn't the most promising in Vizag. A delayed start may be on the cards unless rain gods relent like in Colombo.

Team News

India:All but Harmanpreet Kaur and Rodrigues hit the open nets on a cool evening two days out, facing a lot of left-arm spin from teammates and net bowlers. The two absentees then turned up on the overcast match-eve, managing to get a brief hit. India fielded five frontline bowling options in a 3-2 combination against two of the relatively weaker sides, and got away with it. It could become a concern in this stretch now against SENA, but there's a few in the top-order who can chip in a few overs of part-time offspin if need be. Batting depth has been prioritised instead, and Amanjot Kaur should slot right back in after recovering from the fever that kept her out in Colombo. Making way would be one of the two frontline pace-bowling options.

Probable XI: Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur/Kranti Gaud

South Africa: Skipper Laura Wolvaardt and anneke Bosch could not resist a brief session in the ground the team has never played in before. They backed the same XI that stumbled to 69 all out for their next game and won comfortably. They ideally have no reason to tinker, but if they do seek some more batting cushion then allrounder Annerie Dercksen could get a World Cup debut while compromising on a frontline bowler.

Probable XI:Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Anneke Bosch, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen/Masabata Klaas, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba

Did you know?

- Smriti Mandhana needs 81 runs to become the second Indian in the 5000-run club in WODIs

- Harleen Deol is 25 away from 1000 ODI runs while Richa Ghosh needs 53

- Deepti Sharma is four away from 150 ODI wickets

What they said:

"I think dealing with expectations is simple - not think too much about it. The more importance you give it, the more it will feel like pressure. But the more we stick to not playing to the people's expectations, but to playing to the plans of the team. If we focus on that, I think that everything else goes blurry in the background and is taken care of. So, I think it's pretty simple. Just focus on what we can control, what's in our hands, our plans, our execution, and we just leave the rest." - Jemimah Rodrigueson the pressures of a home World Cup

"Sometimes it's really hard to take, especially your first game. There's been a massive hype about this World Cup and you rock up and you get rolled for 70, which is never nice. And I think everybody took it quite personally. We didn't dig too deep into it, to be honest. I think, and Laura [Wolvaardt] said it as well, we're much better than 69 all out. We just had a horrible day and there was no one that put their hands up and kind of just got stuck in the middle. But we know that happens in cricket sometimes, so I think we moved on pretty quickly." - Nadine de Klerkon how South Africa overcame the horrors of their tournament opener