Day of records

India openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal during their 233-run opening stand in Rajkot, on Wednesday. Pic/BCCI

Records tumbled like ninepins as the Indian women's cricket team, powered by skipper Smriti Mandhana's 70-ball century, demolished Ireland by a whopping 304 runs to claim its biggest-ever ODI win and complete a 3-0 clean sweep here on Wednesday.

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 Mandhana (135, 80b, 12x4, 7x6) and her opening partner Pratika Rawal (154, 129b, 20x4, 1x6), reaching 435-5, the highest total by an Indian team - men's or women's - in ODIs.

Pratika Rawal celebrates her century in Rajkot yesterday. She scored 154; (right) → Smriti Mandhana en route her 135 yesterday. Pics/BCCI

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.

Deepti, Tanuja shine with ball

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.

‘Onslaught was planned'

Mandhana said her record-breaking onslaught on the Irish bowlers was planned but despite her team's clean sweep. "It [onslaught] was planned. I was just thinking not many matches you can go out and attack. So, I thought of trying a few shots. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't. Today it did," said Mandhana after the match.

3
No. of times both openers have scored tons in ODIs

70
No. of balls taken by Smriti Mandhana to complete her century, the fastest by an Indian in women's ODIs

233
No. of runs put on by Mandhana and Rawal for the opening wicket is the third-highest stand for India in women's ODIs

310
No. of runs scored by Pratika Rawal in three ODIs against Ireland @ 103.33

Brief scores
India 435-5 in 50 overs (P Rawal 154, S Mandhana 135, R Ghosh 59; O Prendergast 2-71) beat Ireland 131 all out in 31.4 overs (S Forbes 41, O Prendergast 36; D Sharma 3-27, T Kanwar 2-31) by 304 runs

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