If a daunting 304-run defeat to India in the third and final ODI in Rajkot was not a big enough blow to their confidence, Ireland was dealt with fresh blows on the wounds as ICC pulled them up for a slow over-rate. The Ireland players were fined 10 per cent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate in the last match of the ODI series on Wednesday.
G S Lakshmi of the Emirates ICC International Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after Ireland were ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.
In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
Ireland captain Gaby Lewis pled guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.
On-field umpires Kim Cotton and Akshay Totre, third umpire Virender Sharma and fourth umpire Vrinda Rathi levelled the charge.
India clean sweep Ireland
The result of the match was a mere formality once India set Ireland a massive target of 436, and Ireland could only garner 131 before getting bundled out in 31.4 overs.
India put the first step forward towards a crushing victory through record-breaking Smriti Mandhana (135, 80b, 12×4, 7×6) and her opening partner Pratika Rawal (154, 129b, 20×4, 1×6), reaching 435/5, highest total by an Indian team — men’s or women’s — in ODIs.
India men’s highest ODI total is 418/5 made against the West Indies in Indore in 2011.
Mandhana and Rawal added a whopping 233 runs for the first wicket in just 26.4 overs and there was no looking back.
Then spinners Tanuja Kanwar (2/31) and Deepti Sharma (3/27) took over, sharing five wickets among them to decimate the Irish line-up, which was well short on experience.
Orla Prendergast (36) and Sarah Forbes (41) added 64 runs for a fluent third wicket stand that helped Ireland to recover from a shaky 24 for two to reach 88 without further damage.
But once Prendergast was cleaned up by Kanwar, India were all over the tourists like a bad rash, claiming the remaining seven wickets for just 33 runs.
It also helped India eclipse their previous largest margin of victory (by runs) — 249 registered against the same opposition in 2017 at Potchefstroom, South Africa.
