India Women’s twin victory in the recent SA tour is one of its kind. It is only for the second time the women team has nicked a double victory in a tour. The first such victory was back in 1976. In the recent series there are several special aspects that team India could boast off as its achievements. Here are some of them:

As Mithali Raj, the India captain confessed, now the team has several dependable players in contrast to only a couple of such batswomen before. In this series, there was a late order boom as well as the team witnessed a good support from the middle order. Players like Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy and Smriti Mandhana emerged with match winning scores building the best possible combination in the team. In fact, India found the correct combination of players.

The team had two T20 discoveries in the series. Jemimah Rodrigues and Pooja Vastrakar are certainly the find of the tournament. They emerged as the correct choice of the selection committee playing as the match winners in the shortest format. Rodrigues opening plays were crucial in the 54-run at the final game. Her partnership with Mithali Raj was the winning bet. On the other hand, Pooja Vastrakar’s bowling was imperative to keep South Africa’s run rate under control.

India’s fielding ensemble got a good lift in this recent series. Rodrigues was exceptional again in fielding, with sensational catches and dismissals. Although, the team has enough rooms for improvements, fielding in the last series was certainly a good development underway.

Apart from debutants, the return of Rumeli Dhar with a bang was a great positive development in the series. Dhar picked up three wickets after years of absence from the international circuit. On the other hand, Jhulan Goswami became the first women bowler to reach the 200 ODI wickets milestone.

These four developments in India women team are definitely the best developments so far. Per captain Mithali Raj, the T20 team is on the right tract to World T20. She even backed up the ODI team strongly citing the new combination of players in the team. Thus, the South Africa series is a definite boost to team India’s confidence.