IND vs IRE Highlights, Women’s T20 World Cup 2023: Match abandoned due to rain; India wins by five runs, qualifies for semifinals

The match has been abandoned due to rain and India beats Ireland by five runs. This also means India is through to the semifinals of the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

The game is yet to resume and the bad news is that we are now going to lose overs even if play resumes.

Vastrakar bowls her third over. She starts off with two dot balls. It’s a wide outside off next ball. The rain has gotten heavier and the umpires have called for the covers to be brought on. Ireland is five runs behind the DLS par score of 59 after 8.2 overs.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad comes into the attack. Just five singles from the over. Delany and Lewis have done well to stem the flow of wickets but will need to get going now as the required rate has shot up over 8.5.

Shikha continues. It’s very breezy as the bails keep falling and now there’s a drizzle too. Four singles from the over.

FOUR! Deepti comes into the attack and Lewis greets her with an audacious reverse-sweep that finds the boundary. FOUR! Delany sweeps the last ball of the delivery to the boundary behind deep square.

Shikha Pandey replaces Thakur. She starts with wide outside off. Lewis drives through covers for a couple. FOUR! Lewis swivels and pulls this to the backward square-leg boundary. Expensive first over from Shikha, with 10 coming from it.

FOUR! Vastrakar continues from the other end. Lewis drills a boundary down the ground. FOUR! Delany with some impressive strokeplay. She shuffles across the stumps and scoops this to the fine-leg boundary. She looks to go again with the same shot but changes her mind at the last moment and misses.

Thakur continues. FOUR! Delany slices this through point and to the boundary. Going down leg-side and called wide.

Vastrakar from the other end. FOUR! Outside edge from Lewis and it drops just short of Deepti at slips and goes to the boundary.

Renuka Thakur with the ball. Hunter on strike, Lewis at the other end. OUT! Wicket first ball as Hunter is run out going for the second run. Prendergast comes in at No. 3. OUT! Prendergast steps out and the ball crashes into top of off-stump. FOUR! Delany starts off with a boundary as she opens the face of the bat and gets four through covers.

FOUR! Rodrigues starts the final over with a boundary, sweeping a full toss from Kelly to the square-leg fence. FOUR! Rodrigues dances down the wicket and slices the ball over point for another boundary. OUT! Rodrigues is stumped off the last ball of the innings as India ends with 155 on the board.

Here comes Prendergast. Rodrigues starts off with a single. Mandhana registers her career best in T20Is with a single at deep point. Rodrigues shuffles across her stumps and heaves to deep midwicket for just one. Just three singles to start the 19th over. OUT! Mandhana lofts the ball straight to the long-off fielder and misses out on a hundred. OUT! Prendergast on a hat-trick as Deepti Sharm departs next ball, handing a catch straight to cover. Pooja Vastrakar ends the over with a couple of runs.

Delany bowls out. FOUR! Mandhana hammers this full delivery outside off to the midwicket boundary. It looked like a six but the replays showed the ball just bounced before the rope. SIX! This is in the slot on off-stump and Mandhana pummels this over wide long-on for half a dozen. She also equals her highest T20 score of 86.

Kelly into her third. Jemimah comes in next. Mandhana starts the over with a dot and a single. FOUR! Rodrigues starts off with a four. Over-pitched on the pads and she pushes it through midwicket with some good timing. FOUR! Mandhana is dropped for the third time today. She made room outside off and lofted the ball over covers. The fielder in the deep drops a sitter as the ball trickles away to the boundary.

Delany bowls her third. A couple of singles to start with. Harmanpreet crawls to 13 off 19 and will soon need to find a higher gear. SIX! Another slog-sweep and Mandhana clears deep midwicket for a 77m-six. OUT! Harmanpreet goes for the slog-sweep and Prendergast takes a brilliant catch diving forward at deep midwicket. The captain goes for 13 off 20. Richa Ghosh comes in next. OUT! She has to go for a golden duck as she lofts the ball high in the air trying to go big down the ground and is caught at long-on.

Dempsey with the ball. FOUR! Mandhana gives herself some room and pummels this down the ground for a boundary. Hundred up for India in 14.2 overs. FOUR! Consecutive boundaries for Mandhana as she again makes room and drives through cover-point.

Murray bowls her second. Mandhana gets another reprieve. Mandhana steps out and looks to whip this over midwicket but gets a top edge and Arlene Kelly fails to cling on. SIX! Mandhana gets to her fifty in style as she slog sweeps the last ball of the over for a maximum over deep midwicket. She gets to her half-century off 40 balls.

Prendergast comes back. Harmanpreet is beaten first ball as she swings her bat across the line and misses. She whips the next one through midwicket for a couple and becomes the first Indian to reach 3000 T20I runs. FOUR! Full on middle and Mandhan makes room, takes a stride forward and drills this to the long-off boundary.

Delany continues. Two singles to start the over. Delany darts in a high full toss wide outside off and all Mandhana can manage is guiding it to deep point for a single. A wide outside off makes it five runs from the first four balls. Seven runs from the over finally as Harmanpreet moves to 2999 T20I runs.

Paul into her third over. She misses her lengths but the Indian batters fail to capitalise. Harmanpreet Kaur drives a low full toss to long-on for a single and Mandhana pulls a half-tracker to deep square for one more. FOUR! Mandhana steps out and finally makes a convincing connection, drilling the ball over the bowler for a boundary.

Here comes Delany with the ball. She starts with a wide down leg-side and follows it up with another one down leg. OUT! Shafali is gone. This was full on the pads and she tried to pick this over deep square leg but didn’t get the distance as the fielder runs in and dives forward to cling to a good catch. Shafali Verma c Hunter b Delany 24(29b, 3x4). Harmanpreet Kaur comes in at No. 3 instead of Jemimah. She starts by driving one straight back to the bowler. The captain gets off the mark with a single at mid-on. Mandhana drives a full-toss along the ground to the cover fielder.

Paul bowls her second over. FOUR! Shafali rocks back and punches this short and wide ball outside off-stump to the cover fence. Sixty runs have been added without a wicket lost but both openers haven’t looked at their best yet. Still struggling to time the ball and find the gaps.

Cara Murray with the ball. India gets to fifty in 7.3 overs as Mandhana and Shafali squeeze the singles. Dropped! Full toss and Mandhana steps out and looks to cleat midwicket but finds the fielder, who drops a straightforward catch.

Kelly continues. Just four singles and just seven runs from Kelly’s two overs so far.

Left-arm spinner Leah Paul into the attack. A short one to start with and Mandhana pulls it for a single through midwicket. FOUR! Shafali finally gets going. Width outside off and Shafali slaps this through extra-cover for a boundary. FOUR! Mandhana steps out and beautifully times this drive through covers to end the PowerPlay with a boundary.

Arlene Kelly comes into the attack. The keeper is standing up to the stumps. Full outside off and driven to sweeper cover by Mandhana for a single. Just three singles from the over.

Dempsey continues from the other end. Loose pall on the pads and Mandhana pulls this over short-fine leg and some good fielding in the deep keeps it to a couple. FOUR! Another poor delivery down leg and Mandhana swivels and pulls this just over short-fine and gets a boundary. This is going down leg and called wide. Full on leg and Mandhana flicks this to fine-leg for two more. Mandhana keeps strike with a single.

Prendergast continues. Two more dots to start the over. India has failed to get off to the start it would have liked considering it would want to win big today. FOUR! First boundary for Mandhana. A couple of steps out of the crease and Mandhana cuts this elegantly through point for a boundary. Still, just five runs from the over.

Dempsey to bowl the second over. Loose delivery wide outside leg-stump and Mandhana helps it behind for a couple. FOUR! First boundary of the match. Shafali shimmies down the wicket and slaps this wide outside off-stump delivery to the cover boundary. Beaten! Shafali is beaten driving to drive the last ball of the over.

Orla Prendergast with the ball. Shafali guides the first ball to point for a dot. Three dots to start the over. Shafali looks a bit tentative. She is off the mark with a single, tucking one off her pads for a single at fine-leg. Mandhana pulls to deep square for three. Four runs from the first over.

We are done with the national anthems and Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma are out to open India’s innings. Ireland players take the knee before start of proceedings.

Amy Hunter, Gaby Lewis, Orla Prendergast, Eimear Richardson, Louise Little, Laura Delany (c), Arlene Kelly, Mary Waldron (wk), Leah Paul, Cara Murray, Georgina Dempsey.

Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Devika Vaidya, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh.

India wins the toss and elects to bat. Radha Yadav, who is not well, makes way for Devika Vaidya in India’s Playing XI.

Wicketkeepers: Richa Ghosh

Batters: Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Gaby Lewis, Harmanpreet Kaur

All-rounders: Orla Prendergast, Deepti Sharma, Laura Delany

Bowlers: Renuka Thakur, Arlene Kelly, Radha Yadav

Team Composition: IND 7:4 IRE Credits Left: 8.0

To win big against Ireland, the Indian batting will need to fire, especially captain Harmanpreet and opener Shafali Verma, as both have not played a significant knock so far.

Harmanpreet’s scores in the three matches so far have been 16, 33 and 4, below par by her standards, while Shafali have made 33, 28 and 8.

Young Richa Ghosh has been the most consistent batter for India with scores of 31, 44 and 47 not out, and she would be looking to continue with her good form against Ireland.

After her match-winning knock of 53 not out against arch-rival Pakistan, Jemimah Rodrigues has scored 1 and 13 in the next two matches, and she would look to make the most out of a relatively weaker Irish attack.

An impressive 52-run knock from vice captain Smriti Mandhana, though in a lost cause, against England also bodes well for India as she can put the Ireland bowlers to sword if they fail to keep it tight.

In the bowling department, the 5/15 against England -- her career-best -- should spur pacer Renuka Singh to get more against Ireland while the seasoned Deepti Sharma had been the most consistent Indian bowler so far.

India would expect a much better show from seasoned left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad who is without a wicket after three matches while Pooja Vastrakar and Radha Yadav also need to contribute more than what they have done so far in the tournament.

For Ireland, top-order batter Orla Prendergast has been in good nick with 109 runs from three matches, while Gaby Lewis has scored 84 in total from the same number of matches.

Cara Murray and Arlene Kelly have taken three wickets apiece and they will be wary of the strong Indian batting line-up.

India will look to bounce back from its defeat against England with a big win against Ireland to remain in contention for a semifinal berth in the Women’s T20 World Cup in Gqeberha on Monday.

After the 11-run loss to England on Saturday, its first defeat in the showpiece, India is in second spot with four points from three matches behind England (six points from three straight wins) which has qualified for the semifinals.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will now need not only a win against Ireland in its last group match on Monday but also a big one to have any chance of filling up the remaining semifinal spot from Group 2.

It needs to improve its net run rate from the current + 0.205.

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Shikha Pandey.

Ireland: Laura Delany (c), Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Shauna Kavanagh, Arlene Kelly, Gaby Lewis, Louise Little, Sophie MacMahon, Jane Maguire, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Rachel Delaney, Eimear Richardson, Mary Waldron