T20 WC: India enters semis, defeats Ireland by 5 runs

India entered the Women’s T20 World Cup semifinals after beating Ireland by five runs (DLS). Rain stopped play with India ahead on DLS method against Ireland. With 59 being the par score after 8.2 overs, Ireland are currently 54 for the loss of two wickets. Ireland steadied their innings after Amy Hunter was run out while Renuka Singh made short work of Orla Prendergast. Smriti Mandhana was the top performer for India with a 56-ball-87 as India register 155/6 against Ireland in their Group B encounter. Mandhana stitched together a 50-run partnership with Shafali Verma and although wickets fell in a heap at one point, she continued to play confidently. Jemimah Rodrigues ended the innings well with a hard-fought 19. For Ireland, Laura Delany took three wickets while Prendergast took two. Harmanpreet Kaur | India captain: It was a good game for us. Smriti got runs which was very important. Whenever she’s giving us that start, we are always get good totals. I just wanted to go there and spend some time in the middle. It (reaching the semis) means a lot, we are working so hard for so many years and we always want to do well. Hope we’ll give our 100%. We always enjoy our match against them (Australia). It will be a do or die for both the teams. We just want to go and play free cricket. Laura Delany | Ireland captain: It (rain) kind of came out of nowhere, we weren’t really prepared for it. We didn’t have a look at the DLS score either. Myself and Gaby were trying to build a partnership. Looking back at the World Cup in 2018, I didn’t feel like it was a level playing field. Cricket Ireland have invested hugely in contracts now. At times, we’ve shown what we are capable of. We are going from strengths to strengths. There are definitely areas, particularly in the fielding, that we want to improve on. Overall, it’s been a positive experience. Orla Prendergast has gone from strength to strength. If we can emulate her and take her confidence, we’ll head in the right di