Smriti Mandhana played her career-best innings of 87 runs against Ireland in yesterday’s T20 match. India needs to win this match to qualify for the semi-finals. In such a situation, when the Indian innings faltered, Mandhana played a brilliant inning and brought the team to a defending total. Smriti missed the first match of India’s T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan due to injury.  

Chasing a target of 156, Ireland was stopped in their tracks by inclement weather at St George’s Park. Then at 54/2 in the ninth over, Laura Delany’s side was found to be five runs short of the DLS target, resulting in a narrow loss that saw India join Australia and England in the final four. The final league game between South Africa and Bangladesh will decide the fourth semifinalist. If South Africa wins then they will be through; if they lose, New Zealand stands a good chance of making it through evaluating the marginal NRR difference between the two teams.  

India Wins The Match

Smriti Mandhana survived being dropped four times on her way to a match-winning 87 from 56 deliveries when India batted first. India made 6-155 from their 20 overs, with Shafali Verma with 24 runs and Jemimah Rodrigues with 19 runs as the next highest scorers. Laura Delany took three wickets for Ireland.

“(The rain delay) kind of came out of nowhere and we weren’t really prepared for it,” Ireland captain Delany reported to BBC Sport. Continuing “We hadn’t looked at the DLS score at all, myself and Gaby and were only looking to build a partnership and hit boundaries.”

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Ireland had made a disastrous start, losing their first two wickets for one run. But Lewis (32 not out) and captain Laura Delany (17 not out) put Ireland back in an argument before the rain came. Delany returned to account for Harmanpreet and Richa Ghosh in the 16th over and then Orla Prendergast picked up two in the 19th over to risk delaying India in the death overs. But Jemimah Rodrigues struck two boundaries off Arlene Kelly in the final over to get India past 150 and pinch 10 runs off the final over.