Laura Delany was the star performer for Ireland.
Laura Delany would have enjoyed the celebrations in Sylhet more than most on Saturday night after her all-round performance helped secure back-to-back victories for Ireland and a T20 series win over Bangladesh with a game to spare.
The former skipper and Ireland’s record cap holder top scored in an Ireland total of 134-5 and then kept the home side on a tight leash with her nagging medium-pacers.
A 47-run win gave Ireland an unassailable 2-0 lead in a remarkable turnaround after the 3-0 drubbing suffered in the 50-over World Championship matches.
Regardless of the result in Monday’s dead rubber, the ever-improving Girls in Green can now boast impressive T20 series victories over Bangladesh and Sri Lanka this year, to add to the breakthrough win in Pakistan in 2022.
While it was Orla Prendergast who was awarded Player of the Match after she had taken a third wicket to wrap up the Bangladesh reply on 87, Delany’s figures with bat and ball would have been even more pleasing to coach Ed Joyce.
It’s never easy for a long-serving skipper — the 31-year-old was in charge for 125 games spanning eight years — to adjust to being back in the ranks, particularly when the captaincy has been taken away, rather than resigned.
Delany missed the last part of the home season with injury, and lost the leadership to Gaby Lewis during that lay-off, then took a while to find her fluency at the start of the Bangladesh tour, especially with the ball.
There was no doubting her influence on Saturday, though, striking four boundaries in making 35 from only 25 balls, as Ireland plundered 52 from the last six overs, and then claiming 2-16 from three overs, comfortably her most economical return of the tour.