Team India's spectacular win against Ireland by 6 wickets in a one-sided match in Rajkot
INDW vs IREW 1st ODI Highlights: In the first match of the Women's ODI series played between India and Ireland, opener Pratika Rawal batted brilliantly and led the team to victory.
The Indian women's cricket team defeated Ireland by 6 wickets in Rajkot on Friday and took a 1-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series. In this match, opener Pratika Rawal played a brilliant innings of 89 runs and played an important role in the team's victory. Tejal Hasabnis also scored a half-century. Batting first, Ireland's women's team made 238 runs in the loss of 7 wickets in 50 overs. In response, the batsmen of Team India attained the target of 239 runs in the very 35th over while losing 4 wickets. Pratika was chosen as the Player of the Match for her brilliant batting.
Earlier, Ireland's captain won the toss and decided to bat first. Titus Sadhu spoiled the start of the Irish team and sent Sarah Forbes to the pavilion with a score of 9 runs. Further, a lot of wickets fell and 4 batsmen reached out to the pavilion on the score of 56. Leah Paul then supported captain Gaby Lewis and took the team over 100. Both were looking brilliant and both these batsmen completed their half-century. In the 39th over Leah Paul got run out after scoring 59 runs.
Half of the batsmen of the team went to the pavilion, but Captain Lewis was holding one end. She also lost her wicket near 200. Deepti Sharma caught her on her own ball and deprived her of a century. The last batsmen could not do much and the entire team could score only 238 runs in 50 overs. Priya Mishra took 2 wickets for 56 runs in 9 overs while Deepti Sharma, Sayali Satghare, and Titus Sadhu got one wicket each. Saima Thakor was the most economical and conceded only 30 runs in 10 overs but could not get a single wicket.
Chasing the target of 239 runs, the Indian team got off to a great start from captain Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal. Both of them added 70 runs in 10 overs for the first wicket but Mandhana was dismissed for 41 runs on the last ball of the 10th over. Harleen Deol could not take advantage of the opportunity again and was dismissed for 20 runs. Jemima Rodrigues was dismissed for 9 runs. From the other end, Pratika's bat kept on going but she missed the century and returned to the pavilion after scoring 89 runs. Tejal Hasabnis remained unbeaten till the end and scored an unbeaten 53 runs in 46 balls with the help of 9 fours. Team India will play the second match on the same ground on January 13.
