A relatively inexperienced England side sailed to victory in the 1st ODI against Ireland at Leicester. Although there were no ODI debuts for England today, the 203 caps they fielded was less than half the 541 they had in their previous ODI against New Zealand earlier in the summer, even without Nat Sciver-Brunt (129 caps) playing in that match.

Having opted to bowl, it was far from the perfect performance with the ball from England. Particularly worryingly, England conceded 33 extras – the second most they have conceded in an ODI in the professional era, though to be fair the only time they conceded more – 40 against Pakistan in 2024 – they did also win the match.

It would be easy to point to England’s inexperienced wicket-keeper, playing her very first professional match with the gloves on; but the bowlers have to shoulder the brunt of the responsibility for 20 runs conceded in wides, with Issy Wong sending down 4 in a row in the 5th over, right after having given Capsey her first professional dismissal – a diving catch to her right to see off Alice Tector.

It wasn’t just the extras though – England’s bowling attack looked woefully short of ideas once Gaby Lewis and Amy Hunter had settled into a rhythm, going the best part of 25 overs without a wicket.  Lauren Filer at her best is intimidating and aggressive but she is perhaps learning, as Issy Wong did before her, that you can talk of 80mph until you are red in the face, but unless you can actually bowl it you need something else, and right now she doesn’t seem to have it; whilst England’s third seamer today, Dani Gibson, continues to look like a second-string county trundler because (for all her still largely unfulfilled batting talent) that’s what she is with the ball.

Even with Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone, we’ve seen England struggle to take wickets against the top sides. Without them, they are struggling to take wickets against Ireland, the babyccinos on the ICC Championship’s barista board.

England let the game get away from them to such an extent that by the innings break they were facing a record run chase to get the series off to a winning start – they have scored more than 281 three times chasing before today, but they didn’t win any of those matches, so history was not in their favour. This was a friendly surface to bat on, but it was also a big boundary compared to some we’ve seen, thinking back in particular to Heather Knight’s first games as captain back in 2016, where England thrashed Pakistan on a series of pool tables!

So credit to England’s batters that they executed in a way the bowlers hadn’t, especially Maia Bouchier making her second ODI hundred. If you were going to pick nits, you’d point again at her inability to sustain her concentration – although she did make it to the hundred mark, she then got herself out immediately afterwards, and it was very much her getting herself out, rather than anything anyone in green did!

At one stage it looked like Bouchier and Sophia Dunkley were going to take it all the way, putting on 143 for the first wicket, by which time Ireland looked punch-drunk with England’s win probability already at 99% – a position they did not relinquish for the remainder of the match. Capsey did the job she was here to do – score the runs a better keeper would not have – whilst Freya Kemp literally drove the Irish to distraction. (Comparing the wagon-wheels of Kemp and Capsey is interesting – almost all of Capsey’s runs are in the top half of the clock-face, between 9 and 3; whereas the bulk of Kemp’s are in the bottom half between 3 and 9.)

The only disappointment for England with the bat will be Jodi Grewcock, who made just 9 before being bowled by Cara Murray. To a certain extent she was unfortunate to get probably the ball of the day turning around her; but she was culpable perhaps for playing it that bit too indecisively. It will be interesting to see whether Charlotte Edwards sticks with her, or swaps her out for Charis Pavely in the next match – it’s a tough one, because Pavely deserves the opportunity to show what she can do, but dropping Grewcock after one failure isn’t the way to build a player for the future.

If Charlotte Edwards is really brave, what she will actually do now is rest Bouchier, but I’m struggling to see it, especially with Bouchier being one of her long term projects, with the now-England coach having rescued her career at Hampshire when she was on the brink of giving up – a move that looks now to have been perhaps the greatest long-term triumph yet of her remarkable coaching career.