Takeaways from Ireland's series win in Zimbabwe
Big three consistently fires; Delany's power game; Bowling variety and more after an unbeaten tour
Ireland came within one run of an eight game whitewash of a full member nation away from home. Were it not for a stumping off the final ball of the second ODI (which ended in a tie), Ireland would have won the 50-over series 3-0 to go with their 5-0 hammering of Zimbabwe in the T20I series.
As it transpires, 2-0 and 5-0 victories are not exactly bad outcomes.
Zimbabwe were at times shambolic. Ireland don’t play much 50-over cricket and tend to struggle to adjust when they do, while of all the formats, T20 narrows the talent gap between teams the most and should see at least one upset. That Ireland did not lose a single match in those circumstances tells you plenty about the standard of the opposition.
Regardless, winning for a team this young is only a good thing. What’s more, as we will discuss, the manner of victory was just as important.
Now the side is back on Irish soil, here are a number of takeaways from the victorious tour. Given this is a T20 World Cup year, the following will mostly focus on the shorter format games.
Hunter Heroics
The only place to start, really. Amy Hunter’s 220 runs in the T20Is at a strike-rate of 144.73 runs per 100 balls faced saw her nominated for ICC player of the month for January. Unsurprisingly, she also won player of the series and batter of the series in Harare.
After just three games, Hunter had already recorded the highest run total by an Irishwoman in a T20 series or competition. This was, of course, helped largely by her unbeaten 101 in the first game, a knock which saw her become the first Irishwoman to hit a century in both white-ball formats and the youngest globally to do so.
As I wrote about after that century, the manner of Hunter’s batting was what was notable, particularly the speed. That strike-rate is sensational. If Hunter is able to put away average attacks with such disdain, Ireland will always be in a strong position against sides like Zimbabwe, Scotland and the Netherlands.
As with the rest of this Irish side, Hunter’s next step is translating this success into further runs against teams on the next rung of the international ladder: West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka et al.
Regardless, for now we can say that after many years of wicketkeepers that served as little more than specialists with the gloves, Ireland now have someone behind the stumps who adds significant value with the bat.
Big 3 finally lives up to its billing
Considering Ireland’s top three batters have an average age of 20.3 years, it feels like we’ve been saying for a long time that the side relies on them to score the required runs to win matches. This series saw them deliver.
In this era of the big three of Hunter, Gaby Lewis and Orla Prendergast, never have they delivered to the extent of Ireland winning five consecutive matches on one tour, as they did in Zimbabwe.
The benefit of the top order firing as it did is twofold. Firstly, while the runs came against average enough opposition, the psychological benefit will be massive. These players now know what it’s like to win games for Ireland. That will stand to them when playing against better teams.
Secondly, role clarity within the three has started to materialise. At this stage, Hunter is scoring a touch more fluidly than Lewis at the top of the order. Lewis plays an anchor role of sorts (granted, she did score 56 at a strike-rate of 144 in the first game) as Hunter acts as the aggressor.
When a wicket falls, Prendergast is the adaptable player. She can bat time if needs be, but, of the three, she has the best chance of scoring quickly at the death given her strength down the ground. She is comfortably Ireland’s best option for clearing the ropes, hitting six maximums in five innings on this tour.
Her knock of 22 off 12 (183 strike-rate) was a match-winning effort in the fourth T20 (featuring an anchor innings from Lewis), while Prendergast’s 69 off 48 in the third match showed an ability to come in earlier and bat for time. Albeit that innings still came at a strike-rate of 144.
With Hunter cashing in on the powerplay, Lewis holding things together and finding the boundary often enough to add value herself, all while Prendergast can come in and bat aggressively for long periods or clear the ropes at the death, Ireland have a well-balanced, dangerous top three. We knew that before, but now they now how to regularly win games as a batting unit.
Prendergast the match-winner
While on Prendergast, it would be remiss not to also mention her bowling. After her flurry of boundaries in that fourth T20I won Ireland the game, her 3-24 with the ball in the fifth was a major part of Zimbabwe losing six wickets for just seven runs as they imploded to defeat inside a 17-ball spell.
Prendergast is hands down Ireland’s best all-round cricketer. Similar with the runs from the top three, it’s one thing saying that and another watching it manifest itself into consistent match-winning contributions.
Hunter's start to the T20s (101 and 77 respectively) meant it would always be difficult for anyone to else to win player of the series. Prendergast didn’t have the weight of a century nor did she bowl enough in the series to warrant displacing Hunter - only in two matches was she thrown the ball.
Her batting remains her stronger suit. Yet Prendergast’s extra pace will trouble sides like Zimbabwe when she does bowl.
Long term, as Ireland’s only genuine pace option and their most adaptable batter, Prendergast reminded us all just how important she is to this side.
Delany’s power
With all this talk of the big three, it’s easy to minimise the contribution of the skipper. For so long Laura Delany has been the crisis option at number four, coming in to steady the ship and score at a run a ball when that young top order did not have the consistency shown in this series.
Yet even Ireland’s oldest player has shown she too is capable of development.
In her career to date, Delany has always been a proficient player square of the wicket on the off side, gripping her bat in a way that made it easy to carve width through point. Of late, mirroring Ireland’s transition into a better power-hitting side, Delany has clearly worked on stronger scoring shots in front of square.
Her unbeaten 54 in the third T20 not only saw her partner with Prendergast to post a winning score, but it was the highest strike-rate she has recorded in a single innings in her T20I career - 142.1.
She won’t do it as often as the three players ahead of her in the order, nor would you back her as much as those batters to score quickly against the top sides, but Delany showed in this series that she too can be a decent power option when called upon.
‘Keeping depth
It was largely symbolic, and not a large enough sample size to make any real judgement, but blooding another ‘keeper to serve as Hunter’s back-up was vital in this series.
In the final T20, Joanna Loughran earned a debut and took the gloves.
Considering Ireland went from having Mary Waldron and Shauna Kavanagh as reliable ‘keeping options with Hunter as a back-up to Hunter and no one else in the space of a few months, they needed to figure out what Loughran could offer sooner rather than later.
If Hunter goes down, Ireland are snookered enough as it is trying to replace her bat at the top of the order. If that scenario were to come to light, at least now they wouldn’t be going to a debutant with the gloves.
Loughran didn’t get many opportunities for dismissals while she also didn’t have to bat, so more game time is needed before we make a proper judgement on her readiness for international cricket. But simply blooding a second ‘keeper behind Hunter was a necessary first step.
All the lights
The last time Ireland played under floodlights was the disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa where the additional challenge of fielding a white ball under white lights caused a number of issues.
This time around, Ireland played two games under the lights and won them both, one from an apparent losing position where Zimbabwe, rather than Ireland, imploded.
Given the previous close finish on this tour ended with Ireland throwing away a winning position in the ODI series, to respond to that by holding out and forcing the opposition to instead capitulate from a winning position in foreign, nighttime conditions was an important psychological box to be ticked.
Ireland’s varied attack
The attack has been building nicely and, to a degree, quietly, for some time now, but in this series Ireland showed how much variety they have at their disposal. Ava Canning (in-swing to a right-hander) and Alana Dalzell (out-swing) are complementary new ball options, swinging the ball and keeping the batter trapped in the crease with the ‘keeper up.
Georgina Dempsey offers more pace with the ability to move the ball both ways off the seam. She was solid on this tour, taking three wickets at an average of 19 and an economy of just over seven. It will be interesting to see how she is used going forward in T20s given she featured in only one ODI, a format that may well suit her more given there are two new balls which offer more movement for longer periods.
As we know, Prendergast is Ireland’s strike bowler. She is the quickest, offers prodigious in-swing to challenge the stumps while she has also been working on her out-swinger. She didn’t bowl much in this series, but when push came to shove in the one T20 Ireland came close to losing, she had the ball in her hands. Given her pace, movement with the new ball and ability to target the stumps at the death, she is probably the closest Ireland have to a bowler who can be a threat in all three phases.
Arlene Kelly remains the death option, Ireland’s best proponent of the yorker with the greatest consistency when targeting the stumps. Delany is a similar bowler to her, perhaps lacking the same quality yorker but her return of wickets in this series was excellent (eight in five matches, including 4-12 in T20 number two).
Lest we forget Cara Murray’s leg-spin, which seems to have gone better in ODIs than T20s, and Freya Sargent’s offies.
While all right-handed, Ireland’s attack offers varying skillsets and can be rotated according to match-ups. Sargent can play against left-handers. Dempsey and Dalzell seem good fits against right-hand dominant line-ups given their ability to move the ball away. Jane Maguire too is an out-swing bowler but was not in the squad for the T20s.
Apart from days when Prendergast is in a rhythm, Ireland likely don’t have the individuals to trouble the top sides, but this group of bowlers who are each above average at a single skill should keep them competitive. At the very least, as it did in the final T20 vs Zimbabwe when they posted a low-ish total of 138, this attack should be able to hold out against a certain caliber of opposition.
What’s next?
No series has been announced yet, but there are murmurings of games in the spring before the T20 World Cup qualifiers.
Ireland, Sri Lanka and Thailand will be the three favourites for the two slots for September’s World Cup in Bangladesh.
Both of those teams will offer a significantly greater challenge than Zimbabwe did over the last month. Regardless, Ireland will be a side filled with useful confidence as those qualifiers come closer into view.