Indian women’s team created history
Indian women’s team created history . registered a big win, won the series 3-0, Smriti scored the fastest century .
The Indian women’s team created history in the third ODI against Ireland on Wednesday. In this match played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Smriti Mandhana’s fastest century in 70 balls and Pratika Raval’s first century helped the Indian team create many records and won the series 3-0 with their biggest victory of 304 runs in the third and final ODI against Ireland.
Smriti became the first Indian woman cricketer to score the fastest century by scoring 135 runs (80 balls, 12 fours, seven sixes). Her and Pratika’s innings of 154 runs (20 fours, one six) in 129 balls helped India score 435 runs for five wickets, which led the team to its highest score ever in the 50-over format. This is the highest score of any (male and female) Indian team in ODIs. The highest score of the Indian men’s team in ODIs is 418 runs for five wickets, which it made against West Indies in Indore in 2011. The result of the match was a mere formality. India bowled out Ireland for just 131 runs in 31.4 overs.
Captain Smriti and Pratika shared a 233 run partnership in 26.4 overs for the first wicket. Then among the Indian bowlers, spinner Tanuja Kanwar (2 wickets for 31 runs) and Deepti Sharma (3 wickets for 27 runs) played a key role in dismissing the less experienced Ireland team by taking five wickets. Ireland had a very bad start as they lost two wickets for 24 runs, but Orla Prendergast (36 runs) and Sarah Forbes (41 runs) added 64 runs for the third wicket to take the team to 88 runs.
After Tanuja dismissed Prendergast, the Indians dismissed seven players of the Irish batting order for just 33 runs. With this, the Indian team managed to register its biggest win in terms of runs. Earlier, the team had won by 249 runs against the same opponent in South Africa in 2017. Earlier, Smriti scored her 10th ODI century in just 70 balls. With the help of this brilliant innings, Smriti also surpassed Harmanpreet Kaur’s century scored against South Africa last year in 87 balls. In this way, the Indian women’s team reached the 400-run mark for the first time. With this, the team managed to join the elite list along with Australia and New Zealand. This is also the fourth highest score in women’s ODI cricket. Smriti completed her 31st ODI half-century in 39 balls and the left-handed batsman did not shy away from hitting aerial shots. She hit seven sixes and 12 fours in the innings.
At the same time, cricketer Pratika played a brilliant innings, fully supporting her captain. She made this match even more special by scoring her first international century in her sixth innings. She scored 154 runs in 129 balls. The 24-year-old player, who made her debut in the last series against West Indies, scored three half-centuries in four innings. This time she performed brilliantly. She performed brilliantly by scoring a century in 100 balls. Pratika showed the right combination of patience and aggression and hit 12 fours and a six during her innings. With a partnership of 233 runs between the two, this pair became the fourth Indian pair to share 200 runs in women’s ODIs. The last time Deepti Sharma and Poonam Raut had a record 320-run partnership for the first wicket against Ireland in 2017. This was the third time when both Indian openers scored centuries in women’s ODIs. Earlier in 1999, Reshma Gandhi and Mithali Raj and Deepti and Raut had scored centuries against Ireland. The Indian pair added 90 runs during the powerplay and 67 runs in the next 10 overs, keeping the scoring rate fast. In this way, both of them made a partnership of 100 runs for the fourth time in the last 6 innings.
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