Ambitious but realistic — that was the mantra from Ireland head coach Ed Joyce heading into the summer.
Missing team captain Laura Delany — among others — through injury and with Amy Hunter one of those absent due to school exams, realism perhaps was the order of the day, outside of camp. But the ambition of this Ireland side should show no bounds after an upset 10 run win over South Africa in the first of a three match T20 series at Sydney Parade.
In the first match for the national side since professional contracts were offered to a number of the players, stand-in skipper Gaby Lewis led the way with 52 off 38 balls as Ireland set their visitors 144 to win after being put in to bat at the toss. Leah Paul supported her skipper and opening partner well, notching 47 as 98 runs in total were put on for the first wicket.
South Africa recovered well from a sluggish start — they offered too much width with the ball while aiding the boundary count by diving over a few on the ropes — to restrict Ireland to just 46 runs off the final eight overs.
Nadine de Klerk impressed in particular with her ability to take pace off the ball — her figures of 1-17 making her the pick of the South African attack. Tumi Sekhukhune recovered from an expensive start too to combine well with de Klerk and Shabnim Ismail as Ireland’s middle order stalled in momentum, despite Mary Waldron and Shauna Kavanagh’s ability to find the rope with ramps and sweeps.
From a position of 97-0 after 12 overs, Ireland’s wobble began when captain Lewis was run out looking for a second by a sharp throw in from the deep by Tazmin Brits. Bar one early nick that flew between ‘keeper and slip, Lewis’ innings was a chanceless one and it always felt like it would be a mistake such as a run-out that sent her packing.
From there, South Africa skipper Sune Luus sensed an opportunity to get back into the game and brought on her strike bowler Ismail; a bold call given it would leave her just one over left at the death. The aggressive move paid off, Ismail’s variation with the off-cutter seeing the back of Paul when her shot down the ground was snaffled by Chloe Tryon down at long-on.
With no Hunter or Delany, Ireland’s middle-order was depleted. While Waldron and Kavanagh avoided the trap of digging themselves into a hole with multiple dot balls, to get to a score that completely took the game away from South Africa, Ireland probably needed one of the pair to bat through to the end of the innings. When that didn’t happen, Ireland certainly lost momentum as, despite Arlene Kelly on debut flaying a boundary over extra cover and Celeste Raack playing a deft ramp, the strike rate of the Irish batters deteriorated noticeably after the departure of Lewis and Paul.
Still, credit where it is due to de Klerk in particular at the death. If you had offered Ireland a score of 143 at the beginning of the day, Joyce and co probably would have taken it, even if the circumstances of stalling after a good start were disappointing.
Any frustration at the end of the first innings would have been quickly dispelled by the start of the second for Ireland. With the first ball of the innings, Rachael Delaney nicked off Lara Goodall and all of a sudden the prospect of an upset felt very real. Kelly followed up with a sharp return catch off her own bowling to send Brits back to the changing room and put Ireland firmly into the ascendancy.
From that early point in the innings Ireland never let things slip. The key wicket of Lara Wolvaardt was picked up by Cara Murray, fellow leg-spinner Celeeste Raack taking a good low catch at point. Murray bowled cleverly in tandem with Paul and Raack, the spin trio taking all the pace off the ball and forcing the South Africans into nailing their power options dead on.
Luus briefly threatened to do that in tandem with Tryon - the scars of her brutal takedown of this Irish side in 2016 still raw - the former powering one lofty blow over mid off while Tryon swept to good effect.
Tryon’s 27 off 15 balls looked particularly dangerous but when she was bowled by Paul the game felt within Ireland’s grasp. Luus followed shortly after, Kelly picking up her second scalp and with South Africa requiring a big ask of 18 off the final over, Jane Maguire held her nerve to see Ireland over the line for a famous win.
