All the talk prior to England’s first tour of Ireland since 1995 had been about the visitors’ surplus of debutants, and indeed, England’s cap presentations swallowed 20 minutes before the start of play in the first ODI on Saturday: Hollie Armitage, Hannah Baker, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Paige Scholfield and Mady Villiers all playing in their maiden ODI.
But in the end, it was an old hand who stole the show – the 32-year-old Kate Cross, who already had 91 caps to her name, finished with career-best figures of six for 30 and was unbeaten on 38 with the bat, as she led her team to a four-wicket win.
The match took place on the Stormont estate, with Northern Ireland’s parliament building within touching distance. Fitting, then, that Cross was engaged in a power-sharing arrangement of her own: handling captaincy duties in Ireland, while Heather Knight continued leading World Cup preparations elsewhere.
“The one thing I promised myself in this series was that I would go out and be the best ODI bowler I could be for the team,” Cross said of her record-breaking spell – the second best figures ever recorded for England in a women’s ODI. “We had 30 overs of debutants today so I knew that me and Lauren would need to set the tone with the new ball, but I thought everyone did brilliantly.”
Loud celebrations also greeted maiden international wickets for two 20-year-olds: leg-spinner Baker, who had Amy Hunter sweeping into the hands of Freya Kemp at point immediately after drinks, and seamer MacDonald-Gay, who bowled Rebecca Stokell with an in-ducker.
England’s run-chase was marked by a certain amount of youthful recklessness – Kemp chopped a wide one from Arlene Kelly on to her own stumps, while Villiers was short of her crease seeking an unnecessary second run, as England wobbled to 156 for six.
The required run rate was never an issue – England’s win was eventually sealed with 15.1 overs to spare – but it required a calm head from Cross to prevail, her steady hand tillering the winning 55-run partnership with wicketkeeper Bess Heath. Heath is known for her flamboyant big-hitting, but on Saturday struck just one boundary in her innings of 33.
“Sometimes it’s the unknown that people fear when they debut, because they don’t know how they’ll fare in international cricket,” Cross said. “I wanted to make everyone as relaxed as possible.
“I spoke to Bess about keeping it really simple and I thought she batted really maturely. It shows what she’s capable of.”
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Cross had said on the eve of the match that she would “do it my way and trust my gut” and it was a strategy which seemed to pay off. It took her just five balls to trap Una Raymond-Hoey lbw with an off-cutter, while her death-overs tactic of bowling full and straight yielded successive double-wicket overs, as she efficiently wrapped up the tail.
In between times Orla Prendergast, fresh from a three-match stint in English regional cricket with the Notts-based Blaze, struck a solid 76: the highlight a six over long-on which almost took out the commentators in the live-stream tent.
Incredibly, this was only the second ever ODI 50 for an Irish woman against England – testament to the baffling paucity of bilateral cricket between these two neighbours – but Cross put an end to it with another off-cutter, which Prendergast miscued to cover in the 31st over.
The 22-year-old Prendergast, who was bought by Adelaide Strikers in the recent WBBL auction, also sent down a jaffa which moved in late and castled Tammy Beaumont, but it was not quite enough to make up for Ireland’s under-par total.