England became the first team in women’s cricket to play 600 white-ball games as they took the field in the second T20I against Ireland on Sunday, September 15 in Dublin. England have played 398 ODIs and the Sunday clash was their 202nd T20I in women’s cricket as they surpassed the likes of New Zealand and Australia to script history. New Zealand have played 558 white-ball matches while Australia have played 556, India are on fourth position with 502 matches in coloured clothing.
England have 236 wins in 398 ODIs while getting over the line in 146 T20Is out of 202 matches. England have won the inaugural T20 World Cup and three ODI World Cup titles to their name.
England selected a second-string side for the Ireland tour and ended up losing a match each in the ODI and T20I series. The likes of Mady Villiers and Tammy Beaumont were the stars but taking Ireland lightly did trouble England on a couple of occasions and Sunday was probably the best example of the same.
England were on their way to a score in excess of 175-180. However, just 35 runs in the last four while losing four wickets shifted the momentum a bit in Ireland’s favour. Ireland lost their opener Aimee Hunter quite cheaply before captain Gaby Lewis and Predergast joined forces to keep England bowlers at bay.
Predergast smashed a 51-ball 80 as even though Ireland underwent a bit of a middle-order collapse, but the all-rounder had ensured that her side couldn’t lose from that position. There was a harakiri at the end but Ireland got home safely and did what no other Irish team could do before in the shortest format.
A few players from this squad will now join the main team in the UAE for the Women’s T20 World Cup, starting on October 3.