David Warner

India came up with a clinical bowling display to restrict hosts Ireland to 108/4 in 12 overs after inviting them to bat first. Hooda, usually a middle-order batter in IPL, struck a 29-ball 47, hitting six boundaries and two sixes, while fellow-opener Ishan Kishan (26) and skipper Pandya (24) made vital contributions as India reached 111/3 in 9.2 overs, winning the match with 16 deliveries to spare.

India's trip will kick-start their life post the veteran duo of Mithali Raj, who announced her international retirement earlier this month, and pacer Jhulan Goswami, who didn't play in their final league match of the 50-over World Cup against South Africa in New Zealand, which ended in a last-ball loss and brought curtains on their quest to win the trophy. Apart from young pacers Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh and all-round skills of Pooja Vastrakar, they also have another pacer in Simran Bahadur. 

With head coach Rahul Dravid's mantra of consistency in the playing eleven, giving players time and making them feel settled in their positions, India have now started to benefit from it. After losing in New Delhi and Cuttack, the Rishabh Pant-led side resisted the temptation of making any changes to the eleven and with better execution of plans, registered victories by 47 runs and by 82 runs in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot respectively.

After Karthik's career-best efforts of 27-ball 55, hitting nine fours and two sixes at a strike-rate of 203.7 apart from sharing a 65-run stand off 33 balls with Hardik Pandya (46 off 31 balls) propelled India to a competitive 169/6, South Africa were never in the chase from the word go, with only three batters reaching double figures and crashed to 87 all out in 16.5 overs.

At 56/3 in ten overs, India stared at a low total. But Karthik opened up after taking some balls to get going and shared a 65-run stand off 33 balls with Hardik Pandya (46 off 31 balls) while hitting nine fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 203.7 to lift India to a respectable score. Opting to bowl first, Lungi Ngidi provided the breakthrough for South Africa when his back-of-the-length ball seamed away from Ruturaj Gaikwad, who pushed hesitantly.

Nortje made his competitive cricket comeback by turning out for Delhi Capitals in the franchise's third match of IPL 2022. Then, it took him nearly a month to play his next match and become a regular feature in Delhi's playing eleven. After ending the tournament with nine wickets from six matches at an economy rate of 9.71, Nortje has scalped three wickets in as many games at an economy rate of 9.50 in the ongoing T20I series against India.

The match at Visakhapatnam 48 hours ago had everything India needed, with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan creating a whirlwind 97-run stand to set up Ind'a's base for a challenging 179/5. The bowlers, who were off-colour in the first two matches in New Delhi and Cuttack, came to the party as Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal took four and three wickets respectively to bowl out South Africa for 131.

Both players were recently handed retainer contracts by Cricket Ireland and now find themselves in the 14-man squad set to face India on June 26 and 28 at Malahide. There's no place for Indian-origin off-spin all-rounder Simi Singh with left-handed batter Andrew McBrine providing for some off-spin and Gareth Delany as leg-spin all-rounder.

Apart from Karthik, Shreyas Iyer (40 off 35), Ishan Kishan (34 off 21) were the main scorers as most of the Indian batters failed to deliver against Proteas bowlers and lost wickets at regular intervals. Put into bat first, India had a bad start as opener Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada in the very first over of the innings.

After winning their third toss in a row, Australia opted to bat first and included Josh Inglis in place of Mitchell Marsh, who was out with a minor calf strain. David Warner was slow to get off the blocks for Australia but Finch made up for his partner's slow start. He welcomed Dushmantha Chameera into the bowling with two fours in his first over and dished out the same treatment to Maheesh Theekshana in his next. The change of ends didn't help Chameera, though it did with Theekshana.