Christchurch: The opening partnership of Smriti Mandhana (71) and Shafali Verma (53), along with skipper Mithali Raj's half-century that provided stability to the innings led India to a total of 274/7 against South Africa here at Hagley Oval in an ICC Women's World Cup.
Harmanpreet Kaur's innings of 48 off 57 balls was equally crucial as she kept scoring runs with a healthy strike-rate from one end when the wickets kept falling from the other. However, it did look at one point were India seemed to be surpassing 300 but the fall of wickets mid-innings halted the team's march and they had to be content with a total below 300.
After Mithali's (68) wicket, it was up to Harmanpreet Kaur as Pooja Vastrakar couldn't go for the late onslaught after getting dismissed at 3 runs off 8 balls. From South African side, Masabata Klaas and Shabnim Ismail were the most successful bowlers picking two crucial Indian wickets each.
Read: Ponting sees Pant as "successful" future India captain
India is fighting for a place in the semi-finals.
How the innings panned out?
India chose to put runs on the board in the high-pressure game while their opponents took the field in their last league game having already qualified for the semifinals.
Shafali and Smriti shared a 91-run stand off 90 balls for the opening wicket to provide the start India were looking for.
Shafali scored bulk of the runs in the partnership with Smriti and looked at her fluent best en route her maiden World Cup fifty. She put South Africa's best bowler, pacer Shabnim Ismail under the pump by attacking her from the word go.
Shafali collected three boundaries off Shabnim's second over including an audacious walk across the off-stump to whip the South African bowler over short-fine leg. Her entertaining innings included eight fours.