ICC Shares Video of 'Mind-Blowing' Similarities Between Smriti Mandhana and Sourav Ganguly - Watch

Indian opening batter Smriti Mandhana was a delight for the eyes as she struck 87 against Ireland in the Group B match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup on Saturday, February 20. India needed a win in the match to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament and Mandhana's knock ensured India reached the last-four. Her 87 off 56 balls included 9 fours and 3 sixes and came at a healthy strike rate of 155.36. Mandhana played shots all around the park, including pull shots, cover drives, lofted off drives among others. 

International Cricket Council (ICC) shared a video to show uncanny similarities between former India captain Sourav Ganguly and Mandhana's strokeplay. Both are left-handers who play beautiful cover drives but the similarities went beyond that. 

Watch Mandhana and Ganguly edit shared by ICC here:

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by ICC (@icc)

Coming to the match, India put on 155 for 6 in 20 overs after winning the toss and batting first at St George's Park in Gqeberha. Mandhana and Shafali Verma gave a great start to the Indians, putting on 62 for the first wicket. But the innings fizzled out as soon as they both departed. Verma made 24 off 29 balls. Ireland bowled well to restrict India to just 155 for 6 after they were 62 for no loss after 9.2 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma all had poor outings with the ball while Jemimah Rodrigues struck a 19 off 12 balls to ensure India went beyond the 150-run mark. 

Ireland were done in by the rain and DLS method. They had lost 2 wickets for 55 runs in 8.2 overs. Gaby Lewis was looking well set after scoring 25-ball 32 runs and captain Laura Delany was also settling in nicely before rain arrived. Ireland were short by 5 runs on DLS. Unfortunatly for the Irish, the incessant rain washed away their chances of winning the match.