Ireland finally find their mojo
Five games into their tour of Bangladesh, Ireland click with a complete performance to secure another T20 series victory in Asia
Saturday is another momentous day in the rise of this Irish team.
It wasn’t perfect. The batting display wasn’t as fluid as Thursday’s victory. The performance in the field, while much improved from the previous dropfest, was still flawed. But a second consecutive victory to seal a series win with one game to go was, crucially for confidence levels, dominant.
After posting 134-5 in the first innings, Ireland blew Bangladesh away with the ball. The hosts were bowled out for 87 inside 17.1 overs. It’s taken Ireland five games, but they are finally in their groove on this tour.
They have been rewarded with a series victory. After beating Pakistan back in 2022, this is another successful tour of the subcontinent for this Irish side.
Here are the talking points.
Winning formula
It didn’t go as well as it could - none of Ireland’s top three passed 50 or batted for more than 25 balls - but this was still an example of a clear Irish formula for winning T20 matches.
Go hard with the bat at the top. Hope a set batter sticks around in the middle overs. Get enough contributions from the middle and lower order to reach a competitive total. Squeeze the life out of the opposition with the ball.
Ireland’s top three of Lewis, Hunter and Prendergast were all back in the shed by halfway through the 13th over. That aside, this formula is what took Ireland to victory. Lewis and Hunter went hard early. They hit seven boundaries between them and scored at seven an over for the first 24 deliveries.
Thereafter, scoring was a bit more tricky. Lewis fell on the penultimate ball of the powerplay. Prendergast added some impetus with her knock of 32 off 25, but the strike rate of 128 suggests she wasn’t at her fluid best. Still, her contribution was valuable.
After the all-rounder departed, Delany (35 off 25) top scored without being truly dominant, but Ireland did just enough to have a healthy run rate and get past 130.
It wasn’t Thursday’s 169, mainly because no one scored with a similar strike rate to Leah Paul’s impressive knock that day, but it did not matter. Ireland’s plans with the ball were good. Unlike Thursday, they held onto their catches - a late flurry of drops aside - and Bangladesh imploded under pressure.
Delany the finisher
Ireland don’t have a strong boundary hitter who is the clear finisher in this side. In an ideal world, if there were a handful of other solid top order options, Prendergast could be that player. When she played for Adelaide in the Big Bash, she lined out at six.
When things go right, though, Ireland have a number of options who can use their individual strengths at different times. Today, it came from an unexpected source in Laura Delany. In the final five overs, Ireland scored 44 runs at a run rate of just under nine runs per over.
Much of that was down to their former captain. In recent years, she has worked hard at her power game, and it’s starting to show. A pair of boundaries down the ground, using her feet to the spinners, gave Ireland momentum when things looked like stalling. She found the fence four times in her knock of 35, striking at 140.
Rebecca Stokell was the other who deserves finishing plaudits. She only faced four balls, but she ran well and punished Bangladesh when they had to bring up a fielder into the circle - due to a slow over rate - with a powerful sweep shot. She didn’t have long to bat, but a strike rate of 225 is still incredibly healthy.
Bowling plans
Ireland’s use of Prendergast with the ball was excellent. They decided to employ her point of difference, her extra pace, as she initially went at Bangladesh’s openers with the short ball. She didn’t get a wicket at first - two top edges failed to find fielders. But, when she followed up with a full in-swinger, Sobhana Mostary was hanging on the back foot, waiting for a short ball. She missed a straight one.
The short ball then did work as Dilara Akter top edged an attempted pull and was caught. Then, for the second game in succession, Prendergast’s extra pace did for the tail as she castled Bangladesh’s number 10.
Elsewhere, Ireland looked to hide the ball outside off more in the powerplay, cutting off some of Bangladesh’s leg-side dominant players. Alana Dalzell was a good option for this with her natural out-swing. She too earned a wicket by digging the ball into the pitch outside off, taking a sharp return catch.
After the powerplay, with Bangladesh reeling at 22-4, Ireland knew they were ahead of the game. Arlene Kelly and Laura Delany were disciplined with their straight lines, asking Bangladesh to take risks when already behind the game.
The planning paid off.
Fielding improvements
When Delany took a skier of a catch off the bowling of Prendergast early, it was as if a weight had been lifted off Ireland’s shoulders. The memories of the catching disaster last time out weren’t gone, but the pressure of avoiding another fielding collapse largely dissipated.
Kelly, who was guilty of a drop last time out, took another high one off Delany’s bowling later on. Lewis took snared a pair; one hit straight and flat, the other a difficult, swirling catch over the shoulder. The latter brought about the dismissal of Bangladesh’s last set batter and with it, the game for Ireland.
It wasn’t perfect. Freya Sargent, who bowled economically with the new ball, dropped a sharp caught and bowled chance. Dalzell took a good diving catch at cover only for the ball to pop out when her elbow hit the ground. Forbes put down a high steepler on the boundary but got away with it when Bangladesh’s dodgy running still led to a run out once she threw the ball in to the ‘keeper.
Despite the errors, Ireland did enough to banish any lingering mental scars of Thursday’s effort.
What was said
Player of the match Orla Prendergast: “A great game, a real team performance. It’s very pleasing to back it up after the last day. I think today’s is a more complete performance. A very good batting display, a lot of players contributing, but in the field, we had a tough day the last day so to come out with the intent we did is pleasing.
“We took a lot from the last T20. Learned a lot about their players and where they like to hit so we came up with some good plans and executed them well.”
What’s next?
The final game of this tour is on Monday. We’re back to the ungodly hour of 4am Irish time sadly, but at least Ireland won the series while we could still watch them over breakfast.
Great summary. Ireland getting better with each game. ODI form still worrying. By the way final game on MONDAY