The 28-year-old elegant left-handed batter Smriti Mandhana is currently leading the Indian women’s team as a stand-in skipper, in the absence of the regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur in the ongoing three-match ODI series against Ireland, led by skipper Gaby Lewis. It is a historic series as the Women in Blue are hosting Ireland for a bilateral three-match ODI series for the first time.
Mandhana had a breakthrough year with the bat for India in the ODI format last year as she was leading the run-scoring charts with 747 runs at a strike rate of 95.15 and an impressive average of 57.46 in 13. Her tally of runs included 3 half-centuries and 4 centuries, with a career-best performance with the bat coming on 19th June 2024 against South Africa in the 2nd ODI, when she scored a brilliant century (136 off 120 balls) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Ireland posted a competitive total of 238/7 in their quota of 50 overs in the 1st ODI at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, in Rajkot. Twin half-centuries from skipper Gaby Lewis (92 off 129 balls), and Leah Paul (59 off 73 balls) played an instrumental role in helping the visitors get closer to the 250-run mark. The Indian openers Pratika Rawal and stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana got their side off to a positive start with a 70-run opening partnership, chasing a target of 239.
Skipper Mandhana started the year 2025 from where she left last year in ODIs. En route to her counter-attacking innings (41 off 29 balls), including 6 boundaries and a maximum, she completed a remarkable landmark of 4,000 ODI runs (4,001 runs) at a strike rate of 85.69 and a sensational average of 44.95 in 95 innings with the bat for her side in the format. Her tally of runs includes 29 half-centuries and 9 centuries in the format for her side so far.
Mandhana completed the landmark on the 2nd ball of the 9th over bowled by Arlene Kelly when she found a cue end of her bat looking to drive and the ball ended up going towards mid-wicket for a single. Her stay at the crease came to an end in the very next over bowled by the 18-year-old off-spinner Freya Sargent to provide the first breakthrough for Ireland.
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