The Ireland women’s team on their historic first-ever tour of Pakistan after suffering a clean sweep in the 3-match One-Day International (ODI) series, bounced back stronger with a 2-1 series win in the decider of the 3-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series to script history.
The opening T20I saw Pakistan have a poor start that with Nida Dar’s 61 off 43 balls got Pakistan heading towards a respectful total. The pair of Aliya Riaz and Ayesha Naseem remained unbeaten on respective scores of 24(24) and 11(8) in guiding Pakistan to 135, while Ireland’s Orla Prendergast with figures of 3/10 off 4 over emerged as a key architect in restricting Pakistan to the score. With the bat, Gaby Lewis, single-handedly won the game for her side remaining unbeaten on 69 off 54 with Orla 39(25) and Eimear Richardson 16(15) chipping in with runs in the side registering a 6 wickets win.
The 2nd T20I saw Ireland have a comforting start with Amy Hunter and Orla Prendergast getting starts, despite the early wicket of Gaby Lewis on 4. While Orla departed on 20, Amy departed on 36 with 79 on board and respective finishes of 15(9) and 17(12) from Eimear and Rebecca Stokell pushed Ireland to finish on 118 as Pakistan’s Nida Dar and Nashra Sandhu bagged a couple of wickets each. Pakistan in reply had Javeria Khan start well, but the team then lost a couple of quick wickets. Javeria and Nida were both run out on respective scores of 35 and 28 after having guided Pakistan close to victory and the pair of Ayesha and Aliya got Pakistan over the line to register a 6-wicket win.
Ireland Women’s Team creates History!
Congratulations @cricketireland on a successful tour. #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/Y1HVj1wQEr
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 16, 2022
Ireland in the 3rd ODI had an attacking century-run opening stand that came to a close in the 13th over with 110 on board as Amy on 40 departed and Gaby Lewis too soon on 71(46) followed. Orla’s 23-ball-37 and Rebecca’s 17*(14) powered Ireland’s total to 167. Pakistan in reply had Javeria Khan score a fine 50 off 37 balls, while wickets in regular intervals continued to fall on the other end. Nida Dar’s 26 and Fatima Sana’s 14, delayed the team’s defeat and eventually with 133 on board, Pakistan were bowled out. Ireland’s stunning 34-run win had Arlene Kelly and Laura Delany bag 3 wickets each, while Eimear and Jan Maguire had a wicket and two respectively to their name.
Gaby Lewis with best scores of 54-ball-69 and 46-ball-71 bagged the player of the series award with 144 runs to her name off 3 innings at an average of 72.00. As Ireland gear up to T20 World Cup 2022, this is a promising start the team would have wished for.
While Ireland has got a reason to celebrate in their sides 2-1 T20I series on their first-ever tour of Pakistan, there’s a reason more as the side, with the win in the decider have registered their first bilateral series win in any format in Asia.
HISTORIC SERIES WIN!!
Ireland Women’s Cricket team beat Pakistan by 34 Runs in the final match to take the series win 2-1
Congratulations @IrishWomensCric 🙌👏
#CricketTwitter #PAKvIRE pic.twitter.com/8MgXHnJnin— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 16, 2022
Pakistan who’d shown a lot of promise in the ODI series, continue to hold big question marks in the T20I format and it’s unfortunate for the side, but there doesn’t seem to be any light of hope for change in the fortune of the side in the upcoming T20 South Africa World Cup.