Navi Mumbai, Nov 3 (IANS) Deepti Sharma topped a great all-round performance with a fifty and five-wicket haul as India defeated South Africa by 52 runs to claim a historic maiden Women’s ODI World Cup title at the DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday.

Deepti claimed 5-39 after scoring a fighting 58 to help India score 298/7 in 50 overs and then helped the hosts bundle out South Africa for 246 in 45.3 overs to seal a memorable victory, becoming only the third country after England and Australia to win both the men’s and women’s ODI World Cup.

South Africa’s captain, Laura Wolvaardt, waged a lone battle, but the Indians could not be denied on Sunday as they battled hard, backed each other and stunned the world with a brilliant performance. The team had lost three matches in a row and qualified for the semifinals as the last team, but went on to upset Australia and then defeated South Africa to win the title.

South Africa made a sedate start with skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits taking them 52/1 in the Power-play. Wolvaardt struck Amanjot Kaur for back-to-back boundaries while Brits hammered Renuka Singh for a six in the seventh over in this period.

Amanjot provided India the breakthrough when she nailed a direct hit to run out Brits for a 35-ball 23. The opener, the only Proteas Women batter besides the skipper to score a century in this World Cup, raised 50 runs for the opening wicket with Wolvaardt.

Anneke Bosch failed to trickle the scorer, trapped LBW by Shree Charani for a zero as South Africa slumped to 62/2 soon after the Power-play.

Skipper Wolvaardt got support from Sune Luus as they took the score past 100 before the latter offered a return catch to Shafali Verma, who was brought in as an inspired move by Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who used seven bowlers in all, including herself. Luus fell for 25 off 31 balls, hitting four boundaries.

One brought two to Shafali as she got the dangerous Marizanne Kapp to edge one behind to Richa Ghosh for four as South Africa slumped to 123/4 in the 23rd over.

Wolvaardt, meanwhile, continued to wage a lone battle, cutting, driving and going down on a knee repeatedly to tackle the Indian spinners. She hammered Deepti Sharma for a six over long-on and picked boundaries on successive balls off Radha Yadav, reaching her half-century with the first one (50 off 45 balls, 7×4, 1×6) — her fifth fifty of the tournament — and also helped herself to a couple of fours off Shree Charani.

She found another willing partner in Annerie Dercksen as they rebuilt the innings, keeping alive South Africa’s hopes of winning their maiden World Cup title. The Indian spinners kept the South African batters quiet in the middle overs as Wolvaardt made progress through singles. She had a close call when the Indians opted for DRS on a possible edge behind, but Snicko showed no involvement of the bat.

India could have broken their stand, but Deepti Sharma dropped a straight chance by Dercksen off Renuka. She was 24 off 21 balls. She and her skipper added 61 runs for the sixth wicket, taking South Africa past the 200-run mark. But a superb delivery by Deepti Sharma, a yorker that castled Dercksen for 35 off 27 balls (1×3, 2×6).

Wolvaardt completed her second successive hundred, after the 169 she hammered against England in the semifinal. Her century came off 95 balls and was studded with 11 boundaries and one six.

Deepti Sharma then struck two blows, first getting Wolvaardt (101) holing to Amanjot, who juggles it a couple of times before completing the catch to the relief of everyone in the stadium. Three balls later, the seasoned off-spinner trapped Chloe Tryon LBW for nine runs and South Africa were 221/8 and staring at defeat.

The Indians suddenly seemed to lose their mind, dropping a couple of chances, misfielding on a few occasions, as Nadine de Klerk struck a couple of boundaries. But Deepti completed her five-fer as she got De Klerk for 18 and South Africa were all out for 246, securing India their maiden World Cup triumph, and the stadium erupted in joy.

Brief Scores: India 298/7 in 50 overs (Shafali Verma 87, Deepti Sharma 54, Richa Ghosh 34; Ayabonga Khaka 3-58) beat South Africa 246 all out in 45.3 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 101, Annerie Dercksen 35; Deepti Sharma 5-39, Shafali Verma 2-36) by 52 runs.

–IANS

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