IND-W vs SA-W Live Score, WT20 WC: Toss coming up, Rusty India face Protean test

South Africa will lean on Laura Wolvaardt, who scored 330 runs across that home series win over India earlier this year, including three fifties and a century. She has 520 runs against India in T20Is at an average of 40 and a strike rate above 140. Numbers like that suggest she does not need much invitation to take this attack apart. 

Marizanne Kapp is three wickets away from her 100th T20I wicket and has already taken four wickets in two matches this tournament, including 3 for 23 against Pakistan. Sune Luus adds control with both bat and ball, and her part-time spin could matter if Old Trafford offers any grip against India's left-right opening pair.

The bigger question is whether India's spin-heavy method, which worked so well against Pakistan and the Netherlands, holds up against a batting order that already knows how to attack spin under pressure.

India arrive unbeaten, and the manner of the wins says as much as the results. Deepti Sharma took five wickets against Pakistan. Smriti Mandhana followed a 68 off 44 against Pakistan with 74 off 47 against the Netherlands, and she goes into this game as the tournament's leading run scorer. 

Shree Charani picked up four wickets in the Netherlands match. Two spinners finding rhythm at the same time has made it hard for opponents to settle into any sort of scoring pattern through the middle overs. There is a dent in the squad, though. Shreyanka Patil has been ruled out of the tournament with injury, which puts more weight on Charani and Radha Yadav to hold the middle overs together.

Old Trafford has a reputation built on pace and bounce, but that picture has been changing in recent seasons. The surface still offers something for the fast bowlers, particularly with the new ball, but it has increasingly rewarded batters who get in and play through the line. Expect true bounce rather than excessive seam movement once the openers have settled.

There is some disagreement in early estimates for what a competitive total looks like here. One projection puts the average first innings score in the 190-200 range, in line with how Old Trafford normally plays in white-ball cricket. Another, based specifically on the limited Women's T20I matches actually played at this ground, puts the first innings average closer to 138, with the second innings average lower still at 125. Only two matches have been played at this venue in this tournament so far, and the side batting first won both. In those two matches, the average first innings total was 167.

India hold the narrowest of leads in the overall record, 11 wins to South Africa's 10 across 24 completed T20Is between the two sides, with three matches abandoned without result. That is about as even as a head-to-head gets.

Recent form tells a different story. South Africa have won nine of the last 15 meetings, India four, with the rest washed out or tied. The home series in April this year, a 4-1 result in South Africa's favour, is the most recent meeting and probably the one that matters most heading into Manchester. In the Women’s T20 World Cup, this is the first time that the two sides will face off.