India were knocked out of the ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup 2022 with the final ball of the league stage as South Africa won by three wickets.

Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj led the scoring for India with 71 and 68 as the Women in Blue set South Africa 275 to win and the Proteas emerged victorious in dramatic style thanks to 80 from Laura Wolvaardt and Mignon du Preez’s brave knock of 52 not out.

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England had earlier defeated Bangladesh by 100 runs and will play South Africa in the semi-final on Thursday in Christchurch, while India’s loss confirms Australia will take on the West Indies in Wellington on Wednesday.

India and New Zealand missed out on qualification for the knockout stages by just one point as they both finished on six, India ahead of the hosts on net run rate.

Here are reactions to India’s defeat against South Africa:

India made a blistering start after choosing to bat, putting on 68 for no loss in the powerplay before Shafali Verma was needlessly run out on 53 after a breakdown in communication with opening partner Mandhana.

Mandhana top-scored with 71 and added 80 for the third wicket with Raj before she was excellently caught by a diving Chloe Tryon.

Raj also brought up a half-century before departing for 68 from 84 balls and Harmanpreet Kaur fell two runs short of a fifty of her own as South Africa’s bowlers hit back, Shabnim Ismail recovering from conceding 31 in her first three overs to produce figures of two for 11 in her final seven overs.

South Africa reeled India in to 274 for seven, meaning the Women in Blue would have to bowl their opponents out for under 174 to finish in third and avoid Australia.

They had a sniff when Lizelle Lee was run out by Kaur for six before Wolvaardt combined with Lara Goodall for a 125-run partnership.

Goodall was stumped one run shy of what would have been a maiden World Cup fifty before Wolvaardt was dismissed by a turning delivery from Kaur, missing another chance to make a World Cup hundred after registering her fifth half-century of the tournament.

However, she did become the tournament’s leading run scorer with 433 before leaving the field with a bowed head as Kaur wheeled away in an emotional celebration.

Kaur had another when skipper Sune Luus was given out LBW on review for 22 as South Africa slipped to 182 for four, and the all-rounder was involved again when she ran out Marizanne Kapp to leave South Africa needing 46 from 31 balls with five wickets in hand.

Tryon departed for 17 before Du Preez and Trisha Chetty took the chase to the final over, only for the wicketkeeper-batter to be run out.

Du Preez then appeared to hole out for 51 but was rescued by a Deepti Sharma no ball leaving South Africa with a free hit needing two to win from two balls.

Ismail and Du Preez took two singles to finish the job and the latter swung her arms in celebration after guiding her side to a record chase for South Africa in ODIs.

With inputs from ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2020