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Rodrigues’ maiden international hundred seal series win for India

India notched up a series win that never appeared to be in any doubt, but in batting out 50 overs for a second straight game in Rajkot, Ireland ticked off a few boxes as part of their preparations for the World Cup qualifiers.
India stormed to their highest ever ODI score, fuelled by Jemimah Rodrigues’ maiden ODI century, and then saw Ireland’s top order deny a young Indian pace attack. Christina Coulter Reilly brought up a maiden half-century in her fourth innings, while Laura Delany made a 36-ball 37 to frustrate India’s spinners. Ireland eventually surpassed the 238 for 7 they made two days ago, to take away plenty of batting positives.
The crux of India’s win lay in how their own set of youngsters, outside of Smriti Mandhana batted and put up runs on the board. Pratika Rawal hit a third half-century in five innings, but would’ve been disappointed at missing out on a century for a second-game running.
After making 89 two days ago, Rawal exhibited outstanding offside stroke play against the seam bowlers in particular, during the course of a 156-run opening stand with Mandhana. Rawal was out lbw for 67 off the very next ball after Mandhana mistimed a pull off Orla Prendergast at midwicket for 73.
India’s urgency in the powerplay wasn’t accompanied by blind slogging but pristine stroke play, even as Mandhana initially fiddle in what seemed like a role reversal from the series opener two days ago. That day, Mandhana charged off the blocks, playing her signature pulls, while Rawal buckled down.
This fusion helped the pair put together their third opening stand of 100 or more in five innings, with Mandhana quickly overtaking Rawal. There seemed a sense of inevitability to two impending centuries, but lapses in concentration led to a double-strike.
This brought Harleen and Rodrigues together as the pair took a while to play their strokes on the face of some really slow bowling. Harleen struggled for momentum early on, pottering to 5 off 21 deliveries; Rodrigues was a tad more industrious at the other end, attempting to move around the crease and thwart the seamers by playing the pulls and paddles.
The pair took 75 deliveries to raise their half-century stand which Harleen raised with a superb, lofted hit over mid-off. Rodrigues didn’t want to be left too far behind as she hit Arlene Kelly for back-to-back fours, with overs 32-34 fetching India five boundaries. Harleen possibly played the shot of the day when she exhibited incredible control in whipping a full ball from fourth-stump to bisect the gap between deep midwicket and long-on.
Ireland let themselves down when they missed running out Rodrigues for 34 in the 35th over when Prendergast missed a direct hit at the non-striker’s end from mid-on. Rodrigues was let off a second time when keeper Coulter Reilly put down a tough chance off an attempted late cut off Canning.
Harleen got to her fifty off 58, and accelerated towards her second hundred in four ODIs, before falling for 89. Rodrigues got her half-century a tad slower, off 62 deliveries, before she shifted gears sensationally in the last ten overs. The purity of her stroke play stood out, with her signature lofted hit by moving leg side of the ball making repeated appearances.
Rodrigues took just 28 balls to move from a half-century to her maiden ODI ton, much to the applause of the entire team on the balcony, before she celebrated by mimicking playing a song on her guitar with her bat. India ended with 370 for 5, 102 off those coming in the last ten as Ireland walked back relieved that their morning toil was over.
Ireland were slow off the blocks and never equally went for the target. But Coulter Reilly overcame two blows on her helmet, both times missing a bumper from Sayali Satghare. She overcame the early jitters to exhibit a sense of fearlessness against spin, particularly enterprising off Priya Mishra, the legspinner, whom she swept into different arcs on the leg side.
Delany, who came in at No. 4, showed urgency from get-go, hitting her second ball through the covers for a boundary, and was equally formidable when Deepti Sharma tried to lull her in flight after an early reprieve when the offspinner put down a tough return catch on 7.
As it turned out, this passage – an 83-run fourth-wicket stand – was the only period where in India felt challenged by Ireland’s batters, even as the rest tried to get their eye in. Leah Paul, who struck a half-century in the previous game, made an unbeaten 22-ball 27, to add the finishing touches as Ireland surpassed the 238 for 7 they made two days ago.
Brief scores:
India Women 370 for 5 in 50 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 102, Harleen Deol 89, Smriti Mandhana 73, Pratika Rawal 67; Orla Prendergast 2-75, Arlene Kelly 2-82) beat Ireland Women 254 for 7 in 50 overs (Christina Coulter Reilly 80, Sarah Forbes 38, Lauraa Delany 37, Leah Paul 27; Priya Mishra 2-53, Deepti Sharma 3-37) by 116 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Zimbabwe, Ireland look to enhance their ODI cred as road to 2027 World Cup begins

Zimbabwe and Ireland are set to play three ODIs starting on February 14. The series is not wrapped in a larger context but is working towards the 2027 ODI World Cup – a converging goal for both teams. ESPNcricinfo looks ahead to what the teams can do to align themselves towards their goals in Harare.
Zimbabwe’s summer of 2024-25 is galloping towards its finish, and while they were able to snatch an ODI win each against Afghanistan and Pakistan, they are yet to win a series. In fact, they are yet to win a series across formats. They have three ODIs and three T20Is to change that before heading to England for a Test in three months.
Ireland came out of the cold to seal a hat-trick of Test wins, and they now have the opportunity to whet their appetite in white-ball cricket before their home summer, which also starts in three months.
Both teams did not qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup, so they were not in contention to make the upcoming Champions Trophy. But they do have a carrot to run towards.
Zimbabwe will co-host the 2027 ODI World Cup along with South Africa. Ireland, who were unable to qualify for the last two editions despite ODIs being the format that helped them break into the international stage, have a chance to make a comeback.
On the flipside, the absence of high stakes can free the teams to test out tactics and players if they wish to do so.
The first ever ODI between these two teams, which took place in the 2007 World Cup, ended in a tie, and since then, Ireland have won ten of the 21 ODIs that have been played. The extent of their dominance is magnified in their last ten completed games, out of which they have won eight. They have won five of the 11 games in Harare, but are coming in with a streak of three wins at the venue.
Zimbabwe will be boosted by the return of Craig Ervine, who missed the Test due to a family emergency, and Sikandar Raza, who was with Dubai Capitals – the winners of the third edition of the ILT20. Their top-seven batters, who have averaged 16.69 since the start of 2024, will need to step up for the team to go through an upward trajectory.
In that period, Ireland have played five ODIs, compared to Zimbabwe’s nine. So, time in the middle will be significant in and of itself. They have a settled top-six, with captain Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie at the top, and a seasoned bowling line-up, led by Craig Young and Mark Adair.
Only three ODIs have been played in Harare in the past 12 months. But in the 19 games it has hosted in the last two – including the ODI World Cup Qualifiers in 2023 – the pacers have picked up 144 wickets at an average of 30.38 and economy of 5.37, while the spinners have taken 94 wickets at an average of 36.08 and an economy of 5.10 . However, those numbers could be a result of the fact that all 19 games have been played during the day, where the new ball assisted bowlers in the powerplay before conditions eased out in the middle overs.
So, top-order runs and early wickets in the first innings are likely to carry a premium, as will good defensive spin bowling in the middle overs.
[Cricinfo]
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Sri Lankan among hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar’s scam centres

More than 250 people from 20 nationalities including a Sri Lankan who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar’s Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.
The workers, more than half of whom were from African or Asian nations, were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking.
Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Her government has stopped access to power and fuel from the Thai side of the border, and toughened up banking and visa rules to try to prevent scam operators from using Thailand as a transit country for moving workers and cash.
Some opposition MPs in Thailand have been pushing for this kind of action for the past two years.
Foreign workers are typically lured to these scam centres by offers of good salaries, or in some cases tricked into thinking they will be doing different work in Thailand, not Myanmar.
The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese.
They are pressed into conducting online criminal activity, ranging from love scams known as “pig butchering” and crypto fraud, to money laundering and illegal gambling.
Some are willing to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible if their families pay large ransoms. Some of those who have escaped have described being tortured.
The released foreign workers were handed over by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, DKBA, one of several armed factions which control territory inside Karen State.
These armed groups have been accused of allowing the scam compounds to operate under their protection, and of tolerating the widespread abuse of trafficking victims who are forced to work in the compounds.
The Myanmar government has been unable to extend its control over much of Karen State since independence in 1948.

On Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, which is similar to the US FBI, requested arrest warrants for three commanders of another armed group known as the Karen National Army.
The warrants included Saw Chit Thu, the Karen warlord who struck a deal in 2017 with a Chinese company to build Shwe Kokko, a new city believed to be largely funded by scams.
The BBC visited Shwe Kokko at the invitation of Yatai, the company which built the city.
Yatai says there are no more scams in Shwe Kokko. It has put up huge billboards all over town proclaiming, in Chinese, Burmese and English, that forced labour is not allowed, and that “online businesses” should leave.
But we were told by local people that the scam business was still running, and interviewed a worker who had been employed in one.

Like the DKBA, Saw Chit Thu broke away from the main Karen insurgent group, the KNU, in 1994, and allied himself to the Myanmar military.
Under pressure from Thailand and China, both Saw Chit Thu and the DKBA have said they are expelling the scam businesses from their territories.
The DKBA commander contacted a Thai member of parliament on Tuesday to arrange the handover of the 260 workers.
They included 221 men and 39 women, from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sir Lanka, India, Ghana and Cambodia.
[BBC]
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At least 20 injured after car drives into crowd in Munich

A car has driven into a group of people in Munich leaving at least 20 injured, including two seriously, emergency services have said.
The local fire service said some of those hurt were in a “life-threatening condition”.
The driver was detained at the scene and poses no further danger, local police said. A major operation is under way in the Dachauer Strasse area, near the German city’s central train station.
The incident happened at the scene of a rally linked to the transport union Verdi, according to local media.
A police spokesman told broadcaster BR that officers were checking whether there was a link to the demonstration.
Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter said children were among those injured. “I am deeply shocked. My thoughts are with the injured,” he told local media.
The injured are being treated, police said, adding rescue helicopters were at the scene.
Police said they could not confirm whether anyone else was involved, following unconfirmed reports of a second person in the car.
This comes hours before world leaders including Ukraine’s President Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance will arrive in the city for the Munich security conference, which takes place on Friday.
The incident occurred around 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) from the security conference venue, and people have been advised to avoid the scene, which has been sealed off.
Police have asked for eyewitnesses to come forward with information and footage of the incident.
[BBC]
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