South Africa’s Nadine de Klerk on Friday called out the Indian team for their ‘tactical’ move to slow the game down when wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh went down with an ‘injury’ in the group stage clash of the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
With the Proteas bossing the chase despite seven wickets down — de Klerk had just smashed Kranti Gaud for two sixes and a four in the first three balls of the 47th over — there was a huge halt in the game when Ghosh went down with an unspecified injury. The physio came in and helped her stretch. It didn’t look serious and the delay was irritating for de Klerk, who complained to the umpires and had to be held back by Ayabonga Khaka.
de Klerk, speaking to the press after
the match, said her team didn’t believe that ‘something really happened’ to Ghosh.
“Yeah, look, I think we just kind of questioned whether something really happened,” she said. “We obviously felt like it was quite tactical from India to try and slow the game down. But I think in the end it actually worked out quite well because we also got a bit of a refreshment and it just gave me a few seconds to restart my head and my game plans as well. I think in the end it worked out quite well. But, yeah, we knew it was quite tactical. They really tried to slow the game down, especially with starting the over quite well and then it was all about just slowing things down. But like I said, it worked out quite well for us,” de Klerk added.
‘Slowing the game down’ is a tactic that’s getting quite popular of late. Umpires don’t have strict jurisdiction over players taking their time for injuries, which is used by teams for their advantage to break the opposition’s momentum.
Indian men’s wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant famously and successfully did it in the 2024 T20 World Cup final against the same opponent, South Africa, where his injury break turned the game around for the Men in Blue, helping them win from a situation where they were defending 30 runs off the last 30 balls with six wickets to go.
