India Women vs South Africa Head-to-Head: ODI, T20I & Test Record
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Cricket in India14 min read
India Women and South Africa Women have played 63 internationals since 1997: three Tests, 35 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty20 internationals. India have won all three Tests, lead the one-day series 21-13, and are exactly level in Twenty20 cricket at eleven wins each.
That split is the whole story of the fixture. In fifty-over and Test cricket India have been the better side for most of thirty years, and in the twenty-over format South Africa have matched them match for match. The 25 Twenty20 internationals have produced eleven India wins, eleven South Africa wins and three no-results — the closest balance India women have in any Twenty20 fixture against a Test nation.
India's highest score against South Africa in any format is 603, made at Chennai in June 2024 in a Test they won by ten wickets. Their highest one-day total is 337 for 9 at Colombo in May 2025, and their highest Twenty20 total, 192 for 4 at Johannesburg in April 2026, came in a match they lost.
The full head-to-head, format by format
| Format | Span | Played | India won | South Africa won | Drawn | Tied | No result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 2002-2024 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ODI | 1997-2025 | 35 | 21 | 13 | — | 0 | 1 |
| T20I | 2014-2026 | 25 | 11 | 11 | — | 0 | 3 |
| All | 1997-2026 | 63 | 35 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
India's batting average across the three Tests is 69.38 runs per wicket, which is by far the highest they have managed against any opponent in the format. Against England, whom they have played sixteen times, it is 30.99.
The one-day figure is more ordinary: 32.36 runs per wicket at 4.53 an over, against 22.20 versus New Zealand and 23.15 versus Australia. South Africa are the one strong opponent India have consistently outscored in the fifty-over game.
Three Tests, three India wins
| Result | Margin | Toss | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India won | 10 wickets | India | Paarl | 19 Mar 2002 |
| India won | innings and 34 runs | India | Mysore | 16 Nov 2014 |
| India won | 10 wickets | India | Chennai | 28 Jun 2024 |
India have won the toss and batted first in all three, and won all three. Two of the wins were by ten wickets, meaning India lost no wicket chasing what was left of the target, and the third was by an innings and 34 runs.
The Mysore Test of November 2014 produced 192 from Thirush Kamini and 130 from Punam Raut, the only Test hundreds either of them made. Ten years later Chennai produced 205 from Shafali Verma and 149 from Smriti Mandhana in the same innings, and Sneh Rana took 8 for 77 and 10 for 188 in the match. Between those two matches India played no Test against South Africa at all.
Harmanpreet Kaur's Test record in this fixture is the strangest line in it: two matches, ten wickets at 12.50 including 5 for 44 and a match return of 9 for 85. She has twelve Test wickets in her career and ten of them are against South Africa.
The one-day record: 21-13, and where the wins came
| Year | Played | India won | South Africa won | India's highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 81 |
| 2000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 129 |
| 2002 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 160 |
| 2005 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 81 |
| 2014 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 187 |
| 2017 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 261 |
| 2018 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 302 |
| 2019 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 248 |
| 2021 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 266 |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 274 |
| 2024 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 325 |
| 2025 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 337 |
Read the highest-score column and the fixture divides cleanly in two. Until 2014, India's best innings against South Africa in a one-day international was 187. Since 2017 they have made six totals of 274 or more, three of them above 300.
The 2021 series is the outlier in the win column: five matches in India, four South Africa wins, in a period when India's batting had begun to score heavily without their bowling catching up. India lost that series 4-1 having made 266 in one of the matches.
The 1997 and 2005 rows are the other curiosity. In both India's innings closed at 81 and they won, which tells you what a women's one-day international looked like before the format's scoring rates changed. The wider arc is on the India women's cricket history page.
Home, away and neutral
| Format | Venue type | Played | India won | South Africa won | No result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ODI | In India | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| ODI | In South Africa | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| ODI | Neutral | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| T20I | In India | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| T20I | In South Africa | 13 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| T20I | Neutral | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
India's one-day win rate in South Africa is marginally better than at home — six from ten completed matches away, ten from seventeen at home — which is unusual and is mostly the 2021 home series pulling the home figure down.
The seven neutral one-day internationals are worth separating out. Five were won, and two of India's six highest one-day totals against South Africa — 337 for 9 and 276 for 6 — came at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo inside nine days in 2025.
India's highest totals against South Africa
One-day internationals:
| Score | Overs | Result | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 337/9 | 50 | won | Colombo (RPS) | 7 May 2025 |
| 325/3 | 50 | won | Bengaluru | 19 Jun 2024 |
| 302/3 | 50 | won | Kimberley | 7 Feb 2018 |
| 298/7 | 50 | won | DY Patil, Navi Mumbai | 2 Nov 2025 |
| 276/6 | 50 | won | Colombo (RPS) | 29 Apr 2025 |
| 274/7 | 50 | lost | Christchurch | 27 Mar 2022 |
Twenty20 internationals:
| Score | Overs | Result | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 192/4 | 20 | lost | Johannesburg | 22 Apr 2026 |
| 185/5 | 20 | won | Johannesburg | 25 Apr 2026 |
| 177/4 | 20 | lost | Chennai | 5 Jul 2024 |
| 168/3 | 18.5 | won | Potchefstroom | 13 Feb 2018 |
| 166/4 | 20 | won | Cape Town | 24 Feb 2018 |
| 158/4 | 20 | lost | Lucknow | 21 Mar 2021 |
Three of India's six highest Twenty20 totals against South Africa came in defeats, which is the clearest single sign of how even this fixture has become in the short format. India's lowest completed Twenty20 total against them is 70.
The 298 for 7 at DY Patil in November 2025 is India's highest one-day total against South Africa in India; the ground's full record is on the DY Patil Stadium records page.
Leading run scorers
One-day internationals, India batters with 180 runs or more in the fixture:
| Player | Span | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smriti Mandhana | 2014-2025 | 20 | 974 | 136 | 51.26 | 90.01 | 3 | 5 |
| Mithali Raj | 2000-2022 | 24 | 882 | 79* | 46.42 | 65.96 | 0 | 10 |
| Harmanpreet Kaur | 2014-2025 | 25 | 831 | 103* | 48.88 | 79.59 | 1 | 2 |
| Punam Raut | 2014-2021 | 17 | 603 | 104* | 43.07 | 62.22 | 1 | 4 |
| Deepti Sharma | 2014-2025 | 20 | 588 | 93 | 34.58 | 72.14 | 0 | 6 |
| Jemimah Rodrigues | 2019-2025 | 12 | 310 | 123 | 28.18 | 86.59 | 1 | 1 |
| Shikha Pandey | 2014-2019 | 9 | 262 | 59 | 43.66 | 106.50 | 0 | 2 |
| Richa Ghosh | 2022-2025 | 8 | 214 | 94 | 35.66 | 132.91 | 0 | 1 |
| Shafali Verma | 2022-2025 | 5 | 192 | 87 | 38.40 | 90.14 | 0 | 2 |
| Mona Meshram | 2017-2018 | 6 | 187 | 59 | 31.16 | 60.91 | 0 | 2 |
Mandhana's 974 is the most any India woman has scored against South Africa in any format, and three of her fourteen one-day hundreds have come in this fixture. Mithali Raj's row is the reverse profile: 882 runs against South Africa, ten fifties, no hundred, at a strike rate of 65.96.
Shikha Pandey's strike rate of 106.50 across nine innings is the highest of the ten and she was a seam-bowling all-rounder batting at eight or nine. Richa Ghosh's 132.91 from eight innings is higher still and comes with ten sixes in 161 balls faced. The six-hitting context for that is on the India women most sixes page.
Twenty20 internationals, India batters with 140 runs or more:
| Player | Span | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smriti Mandhana | 2014-2026 | 21 | 485 | 57 | 26.94 | 123.72 | 12 |
| Shafali Verma | 2019-2026 | 15 | 438 | 64 | 31.28 | 140.38 | 17 |
| Harmanpreet Kaur | 2014-2026 | 17 | 434 | 66 | 33.38 | 123.64 | 12 |
| Jemimah Rodrigues | 2018-2026 | 19 | 354 | 53* | 20.82 | 114.93 | 7 |
| Mithali Raj | 2014-2018 | 5 | 232 | 76* | 77.33 | 118.97 | 6 |
| Deepti Sharma | 2018-2026 | 13 | 188 | 36* | 26.85 | 106.21 | 1 |
| Richa Ghosh | 2021-2026 | 8 | 149 | 44* | 37.25 | 144.66 | 3 |
| Harleen Deol | 2021-2023 | 5 | 141 | 52 | 35.25 | 93.37 | 0 |
Shafali Verma's seventeen sixes are the most by any India woman against South Africa in the format, from 312 balls faced. Mithali Raj's average of 77.33 across five innings, at a strike rate of nearly 119, is the outlier of her whole Twenty20 career.
No India batter has scored a Twenty20 hundred against South Africa. The highest is Harmanpreet Kaur's 66.
Leading wicket takers
One-day internationals, India bowlers with ten wickets or more:
| Player | Span | Inns | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jhulan Goswami | 2002-2021 | 20 | 34 | 4/24 | 18.11 | 3.64 | 29.8 |
| Deepti Sharma | 2014-2025 | 25 | 27 | 5/39 | 34.44 | 4.35 | 47.4 |
| Shikha Pandey | 2014-2019 | 14 | 25 | 4/34 | 17.68 | 4.04 | 26.2 |
| Ekta Bisht | 2014-2019 | 13 | 22 | 3/22 | 19.50 | 3.55 | 32.9 |
| Rajeshwari Gayakwad | 2014-2022 | 14 | 20 | 3/13 | 22.50 | 3.70 | 36.4 |
| Poonam Yadav | 2014-2021 | 15 | 18 | 4/24 | 27.55 | 3.70 | 44.6 |
| DM Marathe | 1997-2005 | 6 | 12 | 4/1 | 6.91 | 1.96 | 21.0 |
| Harmanpreet Kaur | 2014-2025 | 18 | 10 | 2/18 | 35.90 | 5.11 | 42.1 |
DM Marathe's six matches against South Africa between 1997 and 2005 produced twelve wickets at 6.91, at an economy rate of 1.96, with sixteen maidens in 42 overs and a best of 4 for 1. Those are the figures of a bowler operating in matches where 81 was a winning score, and they are the best any India woman has produced against any opponent in the format.
Jhulan Goswami's 34 is the largest haul and Shikha Pandey's 25 at 17.68 the best of the modern figures. Deepti Sharma has the most wickets among current bowlers and the worst average of the eight, which is a function of bowling ten overs an innings in the era when South Africa's batting improved.
Twenty20 internationals, India bowlers with seven wickets or more:
| Player | Span | Inns | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deepti Sharma | 2018-2026 | 19 | 23 | 5/19 | 22.26 | 7.45 | 17.9 |
| Radha Yadav | 2018-2024 | 11 | 16 | 3/6 | 15.81 | 6.68 | 14.1 |
| Poonam Yadav | 2014-2021 | 11 | 15 | 3/13 | 15.60 | 6.15 | 15.2 |
| Pooja Vastrakar | 2018-2024 | 12 | 12 | 4/13 | 19.16 | 6.54 | 17.5 |
| Rajeshwari Gayakwad | 2018-2023 | 8 | 10 | 3/9 | 17.00 | 6.07 | 16.8 |
| Shikha Pandey | 2014-2023 | 7 | 8 | 3/16 | 20.87 | 6.68 | 18.7 |
| Shreyanka Patil | 2024-2026 | 5 | 7 | 2/26 | 21.00 | 8.16 | 15.4 |
| Shree Charani | 2026-2026 | 5 | 7 | 3/24 | 19.85 | 6.95 | 17.1 |
Deepti Sharma's 5 for 19 at Johannesburg in April 2026 is the only five-wicket haul by an India woman against South Africa in the format, and one of seven she has taken across all three formats; the full list is on the India women most five-wicket hauls page.
Radha Yadav's 3 for 6 is the cheapest three-wicket return in the fixture, and her average of 15.81 the best of the eight. South Africa's own account of the rivalry runs through the Proteas women's team history page.
What the numbers say about where this fixture is going
The Test record is unlikely to be tested often, because neither board schedules many women's Tests. Three matches in 22 years, all won by India, all won batting first.
The one-day record is India's most comfortable against a strong side and is getting more so: sixteen wins from 25 matches since 2017, with totals past 300 in both 2024 and 2025. Six of India's 46 women's one-day hundreds have been scored against South Africa, three by Mandhana and one each by Harmanpreet Kaur, Punam Raut and Jemimah Rodrigues, a share catalogued on the India women most centuries page.
The Twenty20 record is level and has been trending South Africa's way in South Africa — six wins from eleven completed matches there. The two Johannesburg matches of April 2026 split one each, and India's 192 for 4 in the first of them was not enough. The bowling that has to change for that to shift is measured on the India women best bowling averages page and the India women most wickets page, and the domestic competition feeding it on the Women's Premier League guide. The rest of the Indian game starts at the cricket in India hub.
Sources and method
All results, margins, scores, career figures and dates come from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru team, batting and bowling records for India Women against South Africa Women in women's Tests, women's one-day internationals and women's Twenty20 internationals, read on 27 August 2026.
The head-to-head totals are Statsguru's own opposition grouping, not a count of a match list, and they agree with the sum of the home, away and neutral splits, which were queried separately. The all-format row is my addition of the three format rows.
Batting and bowling tables carry a runs or wickets threshold, stated above each, so that a single match does not put a player on a leaderboard. Averages, strike rates and economy rates are as published.
The highest-totals tables come from the ranked team innings lists for this fixture and include the innings result, so a large total in a defeat appears rather than being filtered out. The year-by-year one-day table is Statsguru's grouping by year; the "India's highest" column in it is the highest India innings in that year's matches, not a series total.
Where a player is named only by initials in the records and the full name could not be confirmed, the initial form is kept. Records of this kind move with every series, and no figure on this page has been estimated.