
India Women vs Ireland Women:
The Smriti Mandhana-led Indian team whitewashed Ireland Women in the three-match ODI series. India’s stand-in captain and young opener Pratik Raval has been the star of the series, and has batted at the top of the innings with two consecutive 100+ run partnerships for the first wicket.
In the third ODI, the opening pair scored 233 runs, the highest opening partnership for Indian Women in ODIs. Both Smriti Mandhana and Pratik Raval put up a stellar performance with the captain scoring the fastest century for the Indian team in WODIs and Raval scoring her first ODI century.
Both the batters shared their experience on their milestone, where Smriti Mandhana asked the young batter how she felt after scoring her first century and how she had quickly added another 50 runs to her innings.
Pratik Rawal said:
“I enjoyed it I am enjoying my time in Rajkot scoring lots of runs which is really a blessing. As a batsman always wanted to score more runs and to do it for my country is really a privilege so I am very happy. After 78 I was a bit conscious yaar hundred hai I was taking singles but after scoring a century I thought let’s just do it so after the century the 50 runs came a bit quickly and I was able to score the way I usually do.”
Pratik Rawal also asked Smriti Mandhana about scoring the fastest century by an Indian batsman in WODI which she completed in 70 balls breaking the record of Harmanpreet Kaur who scored a century in 87 balls against South Africa Women in 2024.
Smriti Mandhana said:
“Today I wanted to go to the field and bat with complete freedom. Before going to the field I told the entire dugout that I would try to play my shots, because you get very few opportunities to do so.”