England squished Ireland in the first of two T20s at Clontarf Cricket Club in Dublin, winning by 67 runs as they bowled Ireland out for 109, having earlier posted 176.

Ireland v England at Clontarf

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-14T14:53:45.271Z

The day began with another lengthy cap ceremony, including a debut for 30-year-old Georgia Adams. Exactly 4 years ago, after Adams had scored a record 154 in a match for Southern Vipers v Western Storm, I wrote the following:

Georgia “Gads” Adams’ 154 not out for the Vipers yesterday against the Storm, was one of the great innings in the history of domestic women’s cricket. It was the highest score ever made in top-level domestic cricket in England by an uncapped player, and although it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Gads will go on to play for England, she’ll be 27 next month, so it does look as though her appearances for England Academy will be as close as she’ll come to wearing an England shirt.

Not for the first time… and surely not for the last… I was wrong!

Adams’ appearance today therefore marked the end of a long journey, from coming up through Sussex where her father Chris had become something of a legend, through a stint at Lightning in the KSL days, then on to Vipers, winning 3 RHF Trophies and 2 Charlotte Edwards Cups as captain in the regional era. She won’t be adding a 6th regional trophy to that list – whilst she was out on the field for England, Vipers were losing their RHF Trophy semi-final to South East Stars – but she has now at last got the England cap that was the one thing missing from her CV.

The other debutantes were Paige Scholfield, who of course had made her ODI debut last weekend in Belfast, and Charis Pavely and Seren Smale, playing their first games for England, having both represented England U19s in the U19 World Cup in South Africa just last year.

Both had decent outings, indicating promising futures ahead of them. Bess Heath is fortunate that England’s squad for the World Cup was effectively picked months ago, because on form right now, I’d take Smale over Heath as a keeper-batter backup for Amy Jones. Smale made 25 off 19 balls, and kept tidily; whilst Pavely took 3-19 – albeit with some fortune in the case of the wicket of Rebecca Stokell, who would surely have been reprieved on review if DRS had been available – given out caught behind, but with replays showing clear daylight between bat and ball as it went past the edge.

But the star of the day was Bryony Smith, who got England off to a massive start with a 24-ball 50 – the (joint) 14th fastest of all time. Smith admitted afterwards that she had been disappointed not to get a game in the ODI series, as England persisted with a woefully out-of-nick Emma Lamb. But handed her opportunity today, Smith came out with all guns blazing. There are players who hit the ball sweeter, but there are few who hit it harder, and when she comes off like she did today, she can take the game away from you in a heartbeat.

England 176 v Ireland #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-14T15:04:30.527Z

Tammy Beaumont was largely a spectator through the powerplay – Beaumont was on 8 as Smith passed 50 in the 6th over – as England set off at more than 10 an over, probably putting the game beyond Ireland within half an hour of the start. Smith did get badly dropped by Gaby Lewis on the ring, and a better fielding team might have cut off some of the drives down the ground; but Ireland were not that team, and Smith punished them for it over and over, to the tune of 12 fours. Inevitably, she was eventually caught at cow corner, but she’d done the job she came here to do, and surely sent notice to England that should a gap open up at the top of the order, her hat is in the ring.

At one stage, it looked like England were on for a really big score; but a poor Late Middle phase held them back, as they lost wickets, and were eventually bowled out off the final ball. Despite her heroics of 4 years ago, Georgia Adams is more of a bowler who bats a bit these days, and she looked slightly off the pace with the bat, not only compared to Smith, but also to Smale and Mady Villiers, who has had a decent last couple of games on this tour.

Villiers contributed 35 off 15 to get England back on track towards the death; and later took 1-9 with the ball. She would probably need to make another step up with her batting if she’s ever to become an England regular, but the role she ends up occupying could perhaps be the one Georgia Elwiss occupied for years – that of specialist travelling reserve, especially given that she remains one of the best fielders in the world, so would be a useful player to have on the bench for fielding sub duties.

England 176 v Ireland 109 #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-14T16:28:03.421Z

Ireland have never chased anything like 176 in a T20 – their best effort being 152 v Bangladesh in 2018 – so the result felt like a foregone conclusion, and so it proved with only Orla Prendergast (52) and Ava Canning (25) reaching double-figures. Prendergast really does look a cut above everyone else, and is perhaps the most talented player Ireland have produced since… well… since anyone – she’s Kim Garth with batting, and if she can carry this form into WBBL then the world is her oyster. At 22, she could still go down the route Garth took, and try to qualify for Australia or England; but with Ireland now a fixture in the ICC Championship, it would mean missing out on Ireland opportunities that Garth just wasn’t getting when she was pondering that move 7-or-8 years ago, and I’m not convinced she needs to in order to have a fulfilling career, so I hope she sticks with Ireland.

Good as she is though, she can’t do it all herself, and with little support, Ireland subsided to 109 all out. England were efficient rather than brilliant with the ball. Wong did bowl a lovely wobble-seamer which moved a mile off the pitch to dismiss Gaby Lewis; but Laurens Bell and Filer won’t be having sleepless nights over her performance, or that of Mahika Gaur, who looked fine, but might have been better coming back into domestic cricket rather than the heat of a full international, having (I think) slightly tweaked her action whilst she’s been away.

With the game being shown live on free-to-air TV, on the Irish equivalent of Channel 4, it was important for the game as a whole that Ireland acquitted themselves well, and they didn’t entirely do that, but they didn’t totally embarrass themselves either. A slightly better day at the office tomorrow would be good though, as we return to Clontarf for the final match of this tour.

When is an ODI not an ODI? When it’s part of the 2001 Women’s European Championship, that’s when! England sent what they then considered to be an “A” side to that competition, and have always refused to recognise the matches as official ODIs. The ICC however does consider them to be full ODIs, including Ireland’s 56 run victory over England at Reading. So depending on which you believe (and… honestly… we go with the ICC on this one) this is either the first or second time Ireland have beaten England in an ODI.

England 153 v Ireland 155-7 (T: 155) #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-11T17:53:35.651Z

Through sunshine and rain, and at one stage both at the same time, Ireland stuck in there to better England off the final delivery, when a fielding error on the boundary by Hollie Armitage allowed the ball to trickle over the rope with 4 required. Armitage looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up, but no one player loses a game by themselves. The error behind the stumps by Bess Heath which had conceded 3 byes in the 20th over was equally critical; but the same applies – it was England who weren’t quite good enough on the day, not Armitage or Heath.

With half the day lost to the weather, it was past 3 in the afternoon when the players finally took to the field to play a 25 overs per side game – soon reduced to 22 overs after a further break for rain, making it more a slightly elongated T20 than a shortened ODI. This undoubtedly played into Ireland’s strengths; but England would still have been firm favorites, even after getting bowled out with 7 balls remaining.

England 153 v Ireland 155-7 (T: 155) #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-11T17:54:01.645Z

Despite losing 8 wickets in the second half of their innings, England still managed to go at a decent clip – maintaining a run rate in excess of 6 an over to get them to 153, to which one run was added by DLS as a result of the reduction in overs during England’s innings. In T20 terms, that’s about 139 – not a huge score, but by no means a poor one either. (A typical 1st innings score in a T20 between the ICC Championship sides is 138.) England yet again had Tammy Beaumont to thank for the bulk of their runs, adding another 50 to the 150 she made in the 2nd ODI, to finish the rubber with 212 runs and a Player of the Series medal.

With an ask of 7 an over, there was only one way for Ireland to play if they were going to win the game – go on the attack, which stand-in captain Gaby Lewis did with aplomb. Kate Cross had taken Ireland to pieces in the first game, but Lewis was able to put that out of her mind and go on the attack in Cross’s first over, striking her for two 4s, which set the tone for an innings of 72 off 56 balls. If she’d stayed in, Ireland would have won easily, but Bess Heath held onto an edge off Lauren Filer, and with 137 on the board and 18 still required, Lewis was going to have to watch the rest of the game from the boundary like any other spectator.

The ask was less than a run a ball, but not a lot less – 18 off 22 – so Ireland needed to maintain their impetus to take it to the final over with 8 required. Kate Cross could have bowled it, but she handed the ball to Mady Villiers, who did not let her down, helping to complete a run out, then taking two wickets by keeping it simple and bowling at the stumps, leaving Ireland’s No. 9 Alana Dalzell to face the first and only delivery she’s received this year (!) in international cricket, needing 4 to win the game.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

A record 10th ODI hundred from Tammy Beaumont, pulling her clear of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Charlotte Edwards at the head of the all-time list of England centurions, drove England to a massive 320 as they crushed Ireland in the 2nd ODI in Belfast.

England 320-8 v Ireland #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-09T13:04:48.660Z

Beaumont carried her bat for 150 not out – the second highest ODI score of her career – hitting the last 50 of those runs at a Strike Rate of over 200, as England piled on the pain in the last 10 overs, which went for 99.

England 320-8 v Ireland #IREvENG

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-09T13:05:12.932Z

By the 10 over mark in Ireland’s reply they had collapsed to 24-6 – the DLS par score at that stage, a whopping 221, with the only remaining doubt being whether we’d make it to the requisite 20 overs to constitute a game. At one point with about 8 overs bowled, the skies blackened and there was a scurry to rescue laptops and notepads from the front row of the press gazebo as a flurry of rain blew in; but in the end it was academic: Ireland beat the rain, bowled out within 17 overs for 45 – their lowest ever total in ODIs.

Other open question at 10 overs: would today’s debutante, Georgia Davis, even get a bowl, given how fast the game was slipping away from Ireland? But she did get her hands on the ball, and did take her first wicket, bowling Alice Tector, to whoops and cheers from the posse of Sparks players, led by Abbey Freeborn, who had made the trip over to Belfast to support her. The grin on her face as she made her way back to fine leg in front of her mates at the end of that over, was perhaps the most delightful thing I saw all day – Irish eyes might not have been smiling, but Davis ones were!

Davis then added the final wicket to her haul to finish with 2-19, with Freya Kemp also taking a brace, though the latter looked far from convincing with the ball. Kemp did however blast a rapid 65 off 47 balls with the bat – a welcome return to form after a dismal Hundred averaging just 7 at a Strike Rate of 89. She did have one enormous slice of luck today – if there had been umpire reviews, she would almost certainly have been run out early-doors; and her batting remains a tad one-dimensional. Her big shot is the slog-sweep over midwicket, which bought her half her boundary runs today – and you’d think an Australia or an India would bowl better lines to her to cut off that option, or at least put a fielder out there on the midwicket boundary. But you can only play the balls you are bowled, and Kemp was entitled to take full advantage as she did.

Another player who looked better than she has done recently was Lauren Filer, who bowled with the aggression of a woman with a point to prove after being left out of the World Cup squad. She was a little bit all-over-the-place in the first ODI on Saturday, but today she found some extra nip in what were definitely “nippy” conditions, and the Irish batters looked terrified. Filer finished with 3 wickets, but it could easily have been 5 or 6, and if she can work out how to bottle-up the way she bowled today and bring it to every game, there will be more World Cups in the future for sure.

Despite the record bowling performance though, the day belonged to Tammy Beaumont. The first time I saw her play an innings which offered a hint of what was to come was a battling innings for Kent, opening the batting with Charlotte Edwards, whose 9 ODI hundreds Beaumont pulled clear over today. Her trademark shot back then was a punched drive down the ground through mid off; but of today’s 150 runs, not a single one came in that area – instead it was the pulls through midwicket that she worked hardest, as well as running hard between the sticks, putting the teenagers on the field to shame with her pace over 22 yards.

What was the same as that early innings for Kent was the ability to dig in and fight – it wasn’t easy going early on, and she didn’t really find a groove until those final few overs; but it shows real temperament to not force the runs when they aren’t quite coming, and then to explode into life when they are. In the fifteenth year of her international career, having batted at almost every position in the lineup (in her ODI debut, she came in at 10!), Tammy Beaumont has seen it all. But more importantly, she has now done it all – she’ll be remembered as one of the greats, and we’ll miss her when she goes.

Six wickets and a cool, calm 38 not out from Kate Cross was enough for England to secure victory against Ireland in the 1st ODI at Stormont in Belfast.

#IREvENG Ireland 210 v England 211-6

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-07T15:36:06.733Z

On what locals told us was the finest day of the summer in Northern Ireland, the Irish (whose team comprises members from both Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland) opted to bat first having won the toss, and would probably have settled for anything over 200, which is where the threshold of respectability lies in ICC Championship cricket right now – a “typical” 1st innings score being between 200 and 300, with 250 the average in recent years.

#IREvENG Ireland 210 v England

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-07T12:55:28.928Z

England got the early breakthrough, with Kate Cross going up twice for LBW to Una Raymond-Hoey in the opening over, and getting the decision at the second time of asking; and Ireland also lost Gaby Lewis in the powerplay – dismissed by the perfect Lauren Filer delivery, bouncing into the rib-cage of Lewis, who could couldn’t get her glove out of the way in time, sending a catch lolliping up to Hollie Armitage at slip.

This brought local girl Amy Hunter (born in Belfast) and Orla Prendergast (last seen playing for The Blaze in regionals) together, who put on 53 to steady the ship as England struggled to drive home any advantage those early wickets might have given them. That’s not to say that Hunter and Prendergast quite got away from England, but both were able to milk relatively easy runs from Hannah Baker and Ryana MacDonald-Gay, and if it hadn’t been for a lapse in concentration from Hunter right after the drinks break at 16 overs, the two might have done a lot more damage.

Prendergast showed her worth to this Ireland team, continuing to push on with Leah Paul, including hitting the only 6 of the innings, before eventually holing-out off Kate Cross in the 31st over for a well-made 76 off 87 balls. It was a rapid ride downhill for Ireland from there, as they slipped from 151-3 to 210 all out as Kate Cross completed her 6fer, meaning ultimately that they left the field disappointed, with a total they would probably have taken at the start of the day.

With 5 debutantes in their lineup, including 3 making their first appearances for England – Baker, MacDonald-Gay and Paige Scholfield – there was definitely potential for England to collapse in a bundle of nerves, especially if they lost a couple of early wickets. With Emma Lamb having departed early, England could have done with Tammy Beaumont sticking around but she got an unplayable delivery from Prendergast – very likely the Ball of the Series, it nipped in at pace between bat and pad to take the very top off the off bail – a delivery that would have dismissed Meg Lanning in her prime.

It was left to two of those debutantes – Scholfield and Hollie Armitage – to get England back on track, under a fair bit of pressure with  only 32 on the board, but whilst both might be debutantes, neither are dilettantes, and at 28 and 27 respectively both have years of professional cricket behind them. That experience showed, as they worked the field in a 62 run partnership that tested the captaincy of Gaby Lewis, who found herself chasing the gaps – plugging one, only for Scholfield and Armitage to find another.

Neither Scholfield (31) nor Armitage (44) were able to push on quite as far as they no doubt would have liked, but their partnership of 62 ensured that England had the platform they needed to go on and win the game.

England definitely had the edge at the half-way point in their innings, but it wasn’t a done deal, with WinHer giving Ireland still a 24% chance at that stage.

#IREvENG Ireland 210 v England 146-5

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-09-07T14:57:37.846Z

It took the most experienced player in the side – the captain Kate Cross, selected for this role very much because England wanted someone who could be a calm head in a crisis, to come in at 8 and get England over the line. If Hollie Armo was Bob The Builder, and Scholfield, Freya Kamp and Bess Heath were Scoop, Muck and Dizzy; then Cross was Wendy – turning up in the final act to do what needed to be done and finish the job!

Cross was understandably delighted at the end, basking in the glow of a Player of the Match award in her first game as captain (something which Heather Knight also achieved, back in 2016 against Pakistan), but Ireland will retain some hope that they can take something from this series against an England team that were definitely a step below the usual 1st XI. Ireland have some decent players in the likes of Prendergast and Hunter, who look capable of winning a match on their day; but it will definitely take “their day”, with Ireland’s fielding in particular looking amateurish compared to England’s, leaking runs they could ill-afford to as England closed in on their total. If Ireland can keep heart, it looks set to be an interesting next 10 days on the Emerald Isle.

This week:

• NZ & England’s contrasting approaches to captaincy succession planning
• World Cup squads: Australia go pace-heavy, England put their trust in spin
• Why did Grace Scrivens & Kirstie Gordon miss out on Ireland selection?
• Chaos in the RHF as regions become counties
• What should Jay Shah do in his first 6 months in office?

This week:

• Selection dilemmas for England ahead of the World Cup
• Will England look to the next gen against Ireland?
• As Zimbabwe join the ICC Championship, is the schedule becoming too congested?
• Scotland, Thailand & Netherlands left out in the cold again by the ICC

This week:

• Spirit beat Fire in a thrilling Hundred final at Lord’s
• Where will the World Cup be moved to & what does that mean for England’s plans?
• Scotland due to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, but will it involve women’s cricket?
• Our thoughts on Yorkshire’s new coach