This was supposed to be Ireland’s big occasion: the first time their women’s team have been televised free-to-air at home; and the follow-up to their famous win on Wednesday, only their second against England in a one-day international.
Instead, the first T20i turned into a rout, as Bryony Smith smashed a maiden international fifty, the debutant Seren Smale took to this level like a duck to water with a 19-ball 25, a catch, a stumping and a sharp run-out behind the stumps, and England bowled Ireland out for 109 within 19 overs to win by 67 runs.
Smith was playing in her first international match since September 2022, but treated Ireland’s best bowler, Orla Prendergast, with disdain, uppercutting her to the boundary three times in the fifth over, which went for 20.
“I’m buzzing,” Smith said. “I’ve been out of the team for a couple of years now and I always said I didn’t feel like I’d had my go at the top of the order.”
Before this tour, Smith had faced a difficult dilemma, knowing she would miss out on captaining her domestic team South East Stars in the semi-finals of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. “It was a tough call, but I felt like this was a good chance to put my name into the hat [for England] again,” Smith said.
As it turned out, there were double celebrations as Smith learned that Stars beat Southern Vipers by three wickets on Saturday, giving her the chance to lead them to glory in next weekend’s final.
Smith was utterly dominant in an opening partnership of 72 with Tammy Beaumont, who scored just eight runs in the time it took Smith to bring up 50. “She said she was happy to watch,” Smith joked.
Put in to bat, England were strongly positioned at the halfway stage with 96 on the board and only one wicket down, but Ireland staged a fightback to bowl them out for 176 off the final ball.
The left-arm spinner Aimee Maguire, who returned figures of five for 19 in Ireland’s historic ODI win in Belfast, was once again instrumental in the collapse, finishing with three for 30 including having Smale stumped.
Mady Villiers drove her way to 35 from just 15 balls but holed out to extra cover in the penultimate over, becoming the second of three victims for the off-spinner Freya Sargent. Meanwhile, Prendergast snaffled three catches at deep midwicket, despite nursing a bandaged hand.
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Prendergast followed up with a 32-ball half-century but it was a lone hand as Ireland sank to 58 for six in the opening 10 overs of the chase. Prendergast was eventually run out in the 13th over, a sharp Smale whipping off the bails after the Irish batter tried to push for a second run.
Issy Wong – herself staging a return to international cricket after a year on the sidelines caused by a dramatic loss of form last summer – took wickets in successive overs in the powerplay, including a beauty which moved back in off the seam to bowl Gaby Lewis.
England’s 6ft 3in prodigy Mahika Gaur, an 18-year-old left-arm seamer, picked up a wicket in her first competitive match since May, while two other England debutants also had a day to remember.
The left-arm spinner Charis Pavely finished with tidy figures of three for 19, including a sharp catch off her own bowling, while the 30-year-old Georgia Adams – daughter of the former England men’s Test batter Chris – took a blinder of a catch running backwards from mid-on to see off Amy Hunter: the first domino toppling in England’s comprehensive win.