The Indian U-19 women's cricket team produced an all-round effort to beat South Africa by 54 runs in the first T20I of the five-match series in Pretoria on Tuesday. The series serves as preparation for both teams ahead of the ICC U-19 Women's T20 World Cup to be held in South Africa from January 14 to 29. Opener Shewata Sehrawat and Soumya Tiwari scored 40 each off 39 and 46 balls respectively to guide India to 137 for five after being asked to bat. In reply, South Africa only 83.
However, the match grabbed attention for another reason. It came in the 17th over of the South African innings when India's Mannat Kashyap ran out Jenna Evans at the non-striker's end. The video soon went viral on social media. Eventually India captain Shafali Verma took back the appeal and the match went ahead.
England women's cricketer Danielle Wyatt was not impressed with the incident. "Oh no I hope there's none of this in the u19 WC!" Wyatt tweeted. India and England have a history regarding running out batters at he non-striker's end. In September, India all-rounder Deepti Sharma had run out England's Charlotte Dean during an ODI game. That incident divided the cricket world on whether it was done in the right spirit.
Now, after Wyatt's tweet, the cricketer is getting trolled on social media.
The second T20I will be played at the same venue later on Thursday.