Thirush Kamini was the star of the show as her unbeaten century helped India secure their place in the Super Six stage of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 on Friday.
Having won the toss and elected to bat first, India were always in control of the contest especially with the opening pair of Kamini and Deepti Sharma adding 174 runs for the first wicket.
Kamini would score 113* while Sharma would fall just 11 runs short of a well-deserved century.
Chasing 251 to win, Ireland lost opening batter Shauna Kavanagh off the first delivery of their innings and never really looked like possessing a threat to the target set by the Indian team.
Ireland would eventually be bowled out for 125 with Poonam Yadav picking up figures of 3/30 in her 10 overs. Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht and Devika Vaidya accounted for two wickets each.
Speaking after the match, Kamini said: “Getting a hundred for India is always special. It was really satisfying to get runs today when the team required a good opening partnership.”
“The ball was not coming on to the bat later in the innings so getting runs was not easy. I’d gone into the match aiming to get runs at a fair pace and succeeded in that.”
Having won against Sri Lanka and Thailand earlier, India now have three wins in as many games.
BRIEF SCORES
India 250/2, 50 overs [Kamini 113*, Sharma 89, Kim Garth 1/38] beat Ireland 125 all out, 49.1 overs [Gaby Lewis 33, Isobel Joyce 31, Poonam 3/30] by 125 runs.
