The Indian Women’s Cricket Team progressed into the semi-finals with a 5-run win via the DLS method over Ireland played at St George, Port Elizabeth on 20 February 2023.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and decided to bat first. Smriti Mandhana looked in decent touch with lovely shots while Shafali Verma struggled with timing on a slow pitch. At the end of the first six overs, the Indian women made 42 for 0.
Mandhana and Verma looked impressive keeping the scoreboard ticking. Shafali Verma was dismissed and caught by Hunter. The Indian openers put on 62 runs for the opening wicket.
Harmanpreet Kaur promoted herself to number 3 in the batting order and struggled to time the ball. She became the first Indian women batter to register 3000 runs in the shortest format. Smriti Mandhana looked impressive hitting some big shots. She completed her fifty off 40 balls and looked for a big score. The Indian captain Kaur fell with a lovely catch by Prendergast. Kaur and Mandhana added 52 runs for the 2nd wicket.
Mandhana showed her intent hitting some lovely shots. Richa Ghosh was dismissed for the first time without scoring any runs. Jemimah Rodrigues provided some valuable runs as they ended on 155 for 6 in 20 overs.
The Indian bowling looked impressive with Amy Hunter run out while taking the second run. Renuka Thakur castled the stumps of Orla Prendgast to leave Ireland in trouble at 1 for 2. Gaby Lewis and captain Laura Delany steadied the ship with attacking shots. At the end of the first six overs, Ireland’s women reached 44 for 2.
After the field restrictions, the Indian bowlers kept it tight not allowing Delany and Lewis hit boundaries. With the scoreboard reading 54 for 2 in 8.2 overs, rain arrived. Ireland needed to be 59 runs but fell short of the target by 5 runs.
The match was called off due to rain as the Indian team won the match by 5 runs via the DLS method and qualify for the semi-finals against Australia on Thursday. For his 87 off 56 deliveries, Smriti Mandhana was named player of the match award.
Harmanpreet Kaur scores 3000 runs in the T20I format
Harmanpreet Kaur achieved the milestone of scoring 3000 T20I runs against Ireland on 20 February 2023. She has been the pillar of the Indian batting line in the shortest format.
She also achieved the milestone of becoming the first Indian cricketer to play 150 T20I matches and surpassed Rohit Sharma to play this number of matches for the Indian team.
Kaur made her T20I debut in June 2009 and bought so many laurels for the Indian team. She has scored 3006 runs from 150 matches ( 135 innings) with 1 century and 9 half-centuries to her name with a career-best score of 103 against New Zealand in the 2018 ICC Women’s World Cup. She hopes to produce a magical knock against the mighty Australian team in the semi-finals to be played on Thursday.
Kaur helped the Indian women’s team to reach the finals of the Commonwealth Games 2022 played in Birmingham.
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