Women's World T20 Cup

18th Match: IND-W vs IRE-W

Preview

In the 18th match of group B of the Women's T20 WC 2023, India will face Ireland on Monday, 20th February at 06:30 PM IST. This match is scheduled to take place at St George's Park Cricket Ground, Port Elizabeth. Both teams will be facing each other after suffering a defeat in their previous encounter in the tournament.

Women in Blue lost their last match English side while chasing 152 runs and fell short by 11 runs. With 2 wins from 3 matches played, IND-W is in the 2nd place in the points table of group B. The Irish side on the other side is yet to win a points account and is at the bottom of group B with 3 defeats from 3 games and they are already out of the tournament. But a win against India will change things for them.

Harmanpreet Kaur-led team India is just a win away from qualifying for the knockout stage of the WC hence it will be a crucial game for them when they face IRE-W on Monday. IRE-W is in a nothing to lose situation and will try to be a hurdle in front of team India. The Irish Women lost their last match against Windies Women by 6 wickets.

After winning the first 2 games of the tournament against PAK-W and WI-W, IND-W lost the last game against ENG-W. Now, to get back on a winning track again, they will face the Irish side in their last group stage match.

While bowling first against ENG-W in the last game, 27-year-old gun bowler Renuka Singh owned the powerplay for team India. The English side was 29 for 3 in the 5th over of the game because of the brilliant spell bowled by Renuka Singh. Renuka Singh took a fifer while conceding only 15 runs in her 4 overs. But other bowlers failed to put pressure on opponents, conceding 151 runs in 20 overs.

Left-handed India's star batter Smriti Mandhana gave a quick start while chasing the target in the powerplay but she didn’t get any support except from the in-formed Richa Ghosh who played in the middle order. Mandhana scored 52 runs from 41 balls which included 7 fours and 1 six in her innings whereas the middle-order batter Richa Ghosh who is the highest run scorer for the Indian side this WC scored not out 47 runs from 34 balls by smashing 4 fours and 2 sixes in her blistering innings.

A lack of team effort cost the IND-W side the last game against ENG-W in the 14th match. Now to overcome those issues and to get back as a winning side again, they are facing Ireland Women on Monday. For English Women, Nat Sciver was the star for them after scoring a fifty in 42 balls. However, she was well supported by Amy Jones who scored 40 runs in 27 balls which included 3 fours and 2 sixes in her innings. 

After getting defeated by a huge margin of 70 runs against PAK-W in the last game, The Irish batting order failure also continued in the last game against Windies Women. Despite Orla Prendergast’s brilliant knock of 61 runs from 47 balls, other batters failed to put a decent score on the board as the team got managed to score 137 runs in 20 overs.

The 3rd placed Windies side in group B with 2 wins out of 4 matches. Both bowlers Leah Paul and captain Laura Delany picked up 1 wicket each but the opponent chased down the target by sparing 6 wickets in hand in 19.5 overs. Windies skipper Hayley Matthews was the star of the match and scored match-winning 66 runs in 53 balls which included 8 fours and 1 six in her sublime innings. To face the Indian side with the kind of squad IND-W has is a huge task for their team. IRE-W has one last chance to register a win this WC when they face the team India at St George's Park. 

Match Details

Match: IND-W vs IRE-W, 18th Match, Women's World T20 Cup

Date: Monday, 20 February

Time: 06:30 PM

Venue: St George's Park Cricket Ground, Port Elizabeth

Pitch & Weather Report

This venue has a capacity of the ground is 19,000 and it will host this 18th match of the Women's T20 WC between IND-W vs IRE-W. The ground has conducted 3 T20I games so far. Out of those 3 games, the team defending the target won twice. But here the general trend is the winning captain chooses to bowl first.  The team that wins the toss would want to bowl first at St George's Park Cricket Ground.

Given the history of the ground, as well as the possibility of rains, batting second will be the most sensible option. Also, the pitch is not so famous for high scores, it is an advantage for the team batting second.

The maximum temperature will remain at 26°C, with a low of 15°C with 66% humidity, and a solid speed of 50 Km/hr for the 18th Match, the Women's WC T20 on Feb 20 b/w IND-W vs IRE-W. The weather in St George's Park Cricket Ground, SA during the match day will rain with precipitation of 50% but we may see a full game on Monday.

IND-W vs IRE-W Squad:

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

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

IND-W vs IRE-W: Probable XIs

IND-W: Shefali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Yastika Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Thakur Singh

IRE-W: Amy Hunter, Orla Prendergast, Gaby Lewis, Louise Little, Laura Delany (c), Arlene Kelly, Eimear Richardson, Leah Paul, Mary Waldron (wk), Cara Murray, Jane Maguire

Match Prediction

It's a must-win game for team India on Monday, by looking at both sides, team India has an upper hand in the upcoming game against the Irish side. Team India has both depths in bowling and batting which adds an advantage to their side against the IRE-W. The Irish side is struggling to score runs this week and it will be a difficult task for them to face Indian seamers. We say India to dominate this match.

Suggested Playing XI Real11 Fantasy Cricket