According to a report published in NDTV Sports, team India’s women have defeated Ireland at the Women’s T20 World Cup in Gqeberha’s St George’s Park by five runs by the DLS method and reached the Semi-Finals. After winning the toss against Ireland in the final match of the group, team India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur made no mistakes in deciding to bat first.
Harmanpreet has said that the pitch looked dry and hard and so they wanted to utilize the favorable batting conditions. Team India had made one change in their playing XI, bringing in Devika Vidya for replacing Radha Yadav. While the playing XI for Ireland’s team had remained the same. Both the openers for India Smriti Mandhana and Shefali Verma had made a very careful beginning against the bowling attack of Prendergast. The opening pair never wanted to play big shots before settling down a bit and so team India scored four nuns at the end of the first over.
In the second over itself, the first boundary in the Indian innings came from the bat of Shefali Verma taking India’s score to eleven runs. Smriti Mandhana too had opened the face of her bat going for a boundary over the point. By the fourth over it was evident for the Ireland team that the Indian opening pair were finding it quite comfortable scoring runs as fours kept on being added to the Indian scoreboard.
Although by the fifth over India had managed to score only thirty runs making a slow start, nevertheless, the scoreboard kept moving. At the beginning of the sixth over team Ireland brought in a change in the bowling attack by introducing spin through Leah Paul. But she failed to make an impact on a dry pitch.
In the seventh over Smriti Mandhana gets a lifesaver when her catch gets dropped. Mandhana kept playing dangerously adding fours in quick successions while Shefali Verma departs scoring twenty-four runs. After the end of ten overs, team India scored sixty-three runs losing one wicket. By the fourteenth over Mandhana made her fifty reaching the Indian score of hundred runs for the loss of one wicket. India closes the innings at a hundred and fifty-five runs for the loss of six wickets and Mandhana remained the top scorer with fifty-six runs off eighty-seven balls.
Ireland lost early wickets in their innings and the struggle to stay in the crease was seen amongst the players. After losing two quick wickets team Ireland looked a little stable and had put pressure back on team India. Although both the seamers and the spinners of India had maintained a tight bowling line and length but, they failed to leave any impact. By end of the seventh over Ireland had already scored forty-eight runs for the loss of two wickets.
After bowling two balls on the eight over the play had to be called off as it started to rain. Team Ireland’s score stood at fifty-four runs for the loss of two wickets. The rain kept getting heavier and so the DLS rule was applied. The DLS par score was 59 which Ireland had fallen short to match. Team India was declared the winner by five runs sealing their spot in the Semifinals of the Women’s T20 World Cup.