Devastating Ismail spell blows Ireland away to secure series whitewash

South Africa (278 for five, 50 overs) (Sune Luus 93, Lara Wolvaardt 89; Arlene Kelly 2-40) beat Ireland (89 all out, 32.5 overs) (Mary Waldron 39; Shabnim Ismail 5-8) by 189 runs.

For a sport that takes as much time as it does, it is remarkable how quickly a game of cricket can be decided. South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail came into this series, justifiably, as her side’s most heralded bowler. She has since performed consistently albeit without the dominant, soul-crushing performance that can destroy an opposition’s chances in one solitary spell.

That performance came on Friday. Ireland would have had some optimism of putting in a decent shift in pursuit of South Africa’s first innings total of 278 for five given their improved effort with the bat last time out. Six balls into the chase however, the game was teetering after two Ismail out-swingers caught the edge of captain Gaby Lewis and Rachel Delaney to leave Ireland reeling two down with five runs on the board and a long 49 overs ahead.

You could argue that driving at the out-swinging ball early on plays into the strengths of a bowler like Ismail. Being bowled through the gate by a vicious nip-backer is much harder to legislate against, as Shauna Kavanagh found to her detriment. Leah Paul was then cleaned up by an in-swinging yorker to leave Ireland on eight runs, four wickets down with just seven overs gone - game over.

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Ismail returned later to nip one final delivery through Cara Murray’s defences and wrap up both a 189-run victory and a fiver-for of her own; player of the match - and the series - secured after a spell of 5 for eight off 8.5 overs.

This was after a much-improved new ball performance in the first innings saw Ireland restrict their visitors to just 29 for one off their powerplay, Sophie MacMahon’s brilliant direct hit doing for Andrie Steyn after an ill-judged quick single. Arlene Kelly and Jane Maguire clicked with the new ball as South Africa’s boundary options were dried up.

On another day, close LBW shouts from Leah Paul, Georgina Dempsey and Kelly on Sune Luus and Lara Wolvaardt could well have been given out and the two batters largely responsible for South Africa’s total with a 177-run partnership would not have done the damage they did. Both fell close to centuries after usual tormentor-in-chief Lara Goodall was stumped by Mary Waldron after dancing past a delivery from Delaney.

A late fightback that saw the back of Luus for 93 and Wolvaardt for 89 also restricted South Africa when they looked on for a score of over 300 with both players well set.

Even still, it was always going to be a big chase with that many runs on the board, a tall order made impossible by Ismail’s intervention. Mary Waldron faced plenty of dot balls early in her innings in a bid to salvage something from that salvo, ending up top scoring with 32 off 69 balls, while Arlene Kelly found the rope three times in her cameo of 29.

The series between these sides finishes with Ireland having lost five out of six games, their solitary T20 win as good if not better than could have been expected given the age-profile and injury/exam enforced absentee list.

The good news on that front is that captain Laura Delany has been declared fit for Super Series action and will be back for next month’s tri-series against Australia and Pakistan in Bready. Ireland also look to have found an exciting long-term option with both bat, ball and in the field in Georgina Dempsey.

This series was the first step in professionalism for this side. There were enough signs to suggest that future goals can be larger than just one win per series.