Indian women in World Cup semis

India crushed lowly Ireland by 30 runs after surviving an early scare in their innings and booked a place in the semi-finals of the women's World Cup on Monday.

India, with eight points from six matches, are currently in the third place behind Australia and New Zealand, with a match against Sri Lanka in hand.

Put in to bat, India made 199 thanks to gritty 70 runs by Anjum Chopra and another 40 by Rupanjali Shastri after their three batters were back in pavilion with the scoreboard reading just 4.

In reply, the Irish women made a contest of the match as openers C D Sharp (19) and A Linehan (20) put up 37 runs for the first wicket.

Rupanjali Shastri provided India the much needed breakthrough when she had Linehan caught by Deepa Kulkarni in the 12th over of the innings.

India wrested the initiative thereon and a spate of mix-ups in the middle resulting into run-outs -- four in all -- left Ireland in dire straits and the modest target looked far.

Earlier, India were given a real shock when Ireland seamer Barbara McDonald beat the defences of skipper Anju Jain (0) in the opening over.

Purnima Rau (1) and Chandrakanta Kaul (0) were also back in pavilion and it was left to Hemlata Kala and Anjum to repair the innings and give some respectability to the Indian total.

Scoreboard'

India:

Anju Jain b McDonald 0
Purnima Rau run out 1
Anjum Chopra run out 70
Chandrakanta Kaul lbw b O'Neill 0
Hemlata Kala c Joyce b SA Young 40
Rupanjali Shastri c Joyce b KN Young 23
Smitha Harikrishna b O'Neill 34
Kalyani Dhokarikar b O'Neill 0
Sunita Kanojia run out 6
Deepa Kulkarni not out 7
Neetu David not out 1
Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-12) 17
Total (for 9 wkts, 50 overs) 199
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-4, 4-96, 5-129, 6-157, 7-166, 8-187, 9-196.
Bowling: McDonald 10-3-45-1, O'Neill 10-2-33-3, Grealey 10-1-29-0, Joyce 10-2-38-0, SA Young 5-0-23-1, KN Young 5-1-26-1.

Ireland:'

C D Sharp c Kaul b David 19
A Linehan c Kulkarni b Rupanjali 20
C O'Neill run out 7
C M Beggs b Kulkarni 25
M E Grealey c Kulkarni b Purnima 16
K N Young st Jain b Rupanjali 11
I M Joyce b Sunita 8
N Squire run out 19
S A Young run out 16
S W Dawson not out 10
B M McDonald run out 3
Extras (lb-7, w-8) 15
Total (all out in 47.2 overs) 169
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-51, 3-63, 4-97, 5-99, 6-114, 7-129, 8-141, 9-157.
Bowling: Sunita 6-1-33-1, Kalyani 4-0-12-0, Smitha 7-1-22-0, Rupanjali 9-1-31-2, David 8.2-3-21-1, Purnima 7-0-27-1, Kulkarni 6-1-15-1.

Mail Cricket Editor