India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup for the third time in a row: beat Ireland by 5 runs with the DLS method; Mandhana played career-best innings

The Indian team has entered the semi-finals of the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa. The Indian team, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, defeated Ireland by 5 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis (DLS) method in their last match in Group-2 on Monday.

India has made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup for the third time in a row. Earlier, the team reached the last-4 in the 2018 and 2020 seasons. In 2020, the Indian also played the final, but then he had to lose the title by losing to Australia.

Batting after winning the toss, Team India scored 155 for 6 wickets in 20 overs thanks to opener Smriti Mandhana's career-best (87 runs) innings at the St. Georgia ground in Kebera.

In response, the Irish team had scored only 54 runs in 8.2 overs when the rain came. When Team India was 5 runs ahead under the DLS method. India was declared victorious as the rain did not stop.

Today England-Pakistan match will decide India's opponent

With this victory, the Indian team qualified for the semi-finals from Group-2. England has already entered the top-4. There is a match between England and Pakistan on Tuesday. The result of this match will decide who will be Team India's opponent in the semi-finals.

Ireland lost two wickets in the very first over

Chasing the target of 156 runs, Ireland lost the wicket of opener Amy Hunter on the very first ball. Amy was run out trying to take the second run. On the 5th ball of the same over, Renuka Singh Thakur bowled Orla Prendergast with a score of zero.

After these 2 wickets, no other wicket fell for the Irish team. Opener Gabby Lewis and captain Laura Delaney steered the innings after early jitters. Both shared a half-century partnership. Both had started playing their shots when it started raining and play had to be stopped. Gabby remained unbeaten on 32 and Laura scored 17 runs.

Ireland's wickets fell like this...

First: Amy Hunter was run out after scoring a single on the very first ball of the innings.

Second: Renuka Thakur bowled Orla Prendergast (0 runs) on the 5th ball of the first over.

Now see the Indian innings...

Mandhana scored 87 runs, and India gave a target of 156 runs

Team India scored 155 runs. Smriti Mandhana (87 runs) played career-best innings. This is his highest score in T20 International. He scored his 22nd half-century. Mandhana scored 9 fours and 3 sixes in the innings. Apart from them, Shefali Verma contributed 24 and Jemima Rodrigues contributed 19 runs.

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored 14 runs. With this, Kaur completed 3000 runs in T20 International. Laura Delaney took 3 wickets for Ireland. Orla Prendergast got 2 wickets and Arlene Kelly got one wicket.

62-run opening partnership between Shefali-Mandhana

There was a partnership of 62 runs in 57 balls between India's opener Shefali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. The partnership was broken by Laura Delaney. He got Shefali caught by Hunter. In this partnership, Shefali scored 24 runs off 29 balls, while Mandhana contributed 33 runs off 28 balls.

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