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 RTE – 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.
