New Delhi: Indian women’s cricket team crushed Ireland by 116 runs in the second One-Day International match at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot. The win helped the hosts take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The top four Indian batters scored fifty-plus scores – Smriti Mandhana (73), Pratika Rawal (67), Harleen Deol (89), Jemimah Rodrigues (102) – as the Women in Blue posted their highest ever total in an ODI innings with 370 for 5. This was also the second instance of the top four batters of India women scoring more than 50 in an ODI innings after the 2004 ODI match against the West Indies in Dhanbad.
🚨 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱-𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁 🚨
A historic day for #TeamIndia! 🙌 🙌
India register their Highest Ever Total in ODIs in Women’s Cricket 🔝 👏#INDvIRE | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/VpGubQbNBe
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) January 12, 2025
Jemimah Rodrigues outnumbered the top order with her maiden ODI century, hammering 12 boundaries, to escalate the Indian innings. She also completed 1000 runs in the 50-over format in her 39th innings. Surprisingly, all the Indian batters, who faced more than 10 balls, held a strike rate over 100. India also hit the most boundaries (44) in an ODI innings, surpassing the mark of 43 recorded against the West Indies last month in Vadodara.
Orla Prendergast (2 for 75) and Arlene Kelly (2 for 82) had something to return with on a day the entire Irish bowling unit was taken to the cleaners.
Ireland had a decent start to their chase with Sarah Forbes playing the new ball against Titas Sadhu and Sayali Satghare brilliantly. Satghare found the breakthrough with the dismissal of Ireland captain Gaby Lewis in the eighth over.
Wicketkeeper Coulter Reily was promoted to bat at No.3 played an exhilarating knock to lead the innings, though a fightback was far away after the scores reading 87 for 2 after 21 overs. Reily hit 10 boundaries but couldn’t convert her spirited knock into a three-figure score. She was cleaned up by Sadhu’s length ball.
Laura Delany (37) and Leah Paul (27) scored meagre runs but the Indians never felt a pinch of salt that Ireland were on for the challenging chase as they easily restricted them to 254 for 7 in the second innings.
The final ODI match will be played on Wednesday (January 15) at the same venue.
The top four Indian batters scored fifty-plus scores – Smriti Mandhana (73), Pratika Rawal (67), Harleen Deol (89), Jemimah Rodrigues (102) – as the Women in Blue posted their highest ever total in an ODI innings with 370 for 5. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
