And, to cap things off, here’s Raf Nicholson’s report from Old Trafford.
Thanks for your company. Scotland have one World Cup win in the bag: can they add another against Haiti in Boston in the wee small hours of the morning? I suspect they can. But first the quieter of the two World Cups has another big occasion. Do join Daniel Gallan for that one.
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England got off to a flyer last night, and now the Scots have too. This is three triumphs in one for them: a first win in a T20 World Cup, a fourth successive victory over their closest rivals, and a bonanza in terms of the net run-rate. Their NRR is now 2.00, well behind England’s (4.35), but they’re not expecting to win this group. Their eyes are on the prize of coming second and reaching the semi-finals. They are way ahead of Sri Lanka, who have nul points and a NRR of -4.35. If they can beat West Indies on Thursday, they will be in business.
Gaby Lewis, Ireland’s captain, gives a gracious interview. Asked where it all went wrong, she pinpoints the middle overs, when the Bryces went hard against Ireland’s slow bowlers. The difference between the sides was not just the sisters, but the spinners – Ireland’s took a battering, whereas Scotland’s took six wickets (three each for Kirstie Gordon and Katherine Fraser).
The Player of the Match has to be called Bryce. Yes, it’s Kathryn. Giving an interview, she starts by deflecting the credit to the fans. “The support for both teams was absolutely outstanding.” And she continues by deflecting the credit to her sister. “The outfield was slow, we got up and down really well, and the way Sarah attacked in the middle overs made it easy for me.” She doesn’t even mention her own captaincy, which was outstanding.
The Bryces bossed it. Kathryn made 60, took the only two wickets to fall to a Scottish seamer, and managed her spinners superbly. Sarah made 49, added 106 with her big sister, took a smart stumping and completed the crucial run-out of Orla Prendergast.
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SCOTLAND WIN BY 40 RUNS!
Maguire c Slater b K Bryce 2 (Ireland 121 all out) Kathryn Bryce wraps it up! Scotland have their first T20 World Cup win, and Ireland have to wait for theirs.
19th over: Ireland 121-9 (Canning 10, Maguire 2) Ava Canning is determined to go down fighting. She hits a fine lofted drive off Fraser, but it’s all in vain …
18th over: Ireland 113-9 (Canning 4, Maguire 0) It’s been a tale of two collapses for Ireland: first they lost four wickets for just three runs, then Prendergast added 38 with Kelly, and now they’ve lost three for five.
Wicket! Murray c & b Fraser 0 (Ireland 113-9)
Another one! Another one for the Scottish spinners! And another caught-and-bowled!
Wicket! Kelly run out (Fraser) 15 (Ireland 112-8)
After running Prendergast out, poor Kelly has run herself out too.
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17th over: Ireland 109-7 (Kelly 14, Canning 1) To make matters worse, Prendergast had just found top gear, swinging Slater’s slower ball for six. The first six today by someone not called Bryce.
Wicket! Prendergast run out (Carter/S Bryce) 33 (Ireland 108-7)
Ah no! Ireland’s only hope has perished in a needless mix-up. Prendergast was happy with a single but Kelly wanted two, and it’s the one in the right who has to go. Shapr work from Darcey Carter, firing the ball in to the keeper.
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16th over: Ireland 96-6 (Prendergast 22, Kelly 13) Kathryn Bryce tries her seventh bowler, Priyanaz Chatterji, right-arm medium. Arlene Kelly comes to the party with a cut for four and a lofted square drive for four more. She takes 11 off the over, but still the rate climbs.
15th over: Ireland 85-6 (Prendergast 22, Kelly 2) Gordon starts this over on a hat-trick and she deserves one as she produces a ripper, turning the ball from off stump, beating Prendergast’s prod. When Gordon drops short, Prendergast manages to swing her away for four and two. She’s showing some fight, but the required rate is still not on Ireland’s side: it rises to 15 as they need 77 from the last five over. It’s almost impossible.
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14th over: Ireland 77-6 (Prendergast 15, Kelly 1) Prendergast begins the over with a four, driven through the covers, but these Scottish spinners are made of stern stuff and Fraser fights back, conceding only three off the last five balls. the rate climbs to 14. Scotland have only to hold their nerve to complete their first T20 World Cup win.
13th over: Ireland 70-6 (Prendergast 9) Orla Prendergast must be wondering what she is witnessing. Not only have Ireland collapsed, but the required rate has rocketed to 13. They need 92 and Prendergast is going to have get most of them herself.
Wicket! Tector b Gordon 0 (Ireland 70-6)
Bad to worse! Tector can’t detect the line or protect her stumps. Gordon has two in two and three in the over!
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Wicket! Paul c & b Gordon 0 (Ireland 70-5)
Paul can only chip back to the bowler. Ireland are falling apart!
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Wicket! Stokell b Gordon 2 (Ireland 70-4)
And another! Stokell, looking to steer the ball behind square, misses a straight one and Ireland are in a bad way here.
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12th over: Ireland 69-3 (Prendergast 8, Stokell 1) Katherine Fraser is threatening to keep the Player of the Match award out of the hands of the Bryce family: she has 2-0-8-2.
Wicket! Hunter b Fraser 39 (Ireland 67-3)
Big moment! The only Irish batter to look comfortable today has gone, missing a reverse sweep as Fraser strikes again.
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11th over: Ireland 66-2 (Hunter 39, Prendergast 7) Kathryn Bryce takes Abel off and trusts herself to restore order. It half-works: she goes for eight runs, two or three below the asking rate, but Hunter maintains her momentum with a slog for four.
“Afternoon Tim,” says Simon McMahon. “Scotland’s women cricketers showing the male footballers the way, though if anyone can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it’s Scotland. In any sport. Maybe today will be different...”
10th over: Ireland 58-2 (Hunter 32, Prendergast 6) Kathryn Bryce brings on her sixth bowler, Chloe Abel, a right-arm medium-pacer who is being watched today by her grandmother. Hunter, seeing the chance to lift the run rate, greets her with a nice controlled pull for four and follows up with a ramp for four more. That’s 14 off the over, so at the halfway stage Ireland are coming back to life.
9th over: Ireland 44-2 (Hunter 21, Prendergast 5) Kirstie Gordon, who conceded only three singles off her first over, repeats the trick with her second. Amy Hunter is going at a reasonable pace with 21 off 25 balls, but still the asking rate climbs – it’s now 10.72 an over.
8th over: Ireland 41-2 (Hunter 19, Prendergast 4) Orla Prendergast, impressive but empty-handed with the ball, gets off the mark with a commanding cut for four.
Wicket! Lewis st K Bryce b Fraser 11 (ireland 37-2)
The big one! After playing herself in, Lewis gets herself out. She goes down the track to the off-spinner but Katherine Fraser sees her coming, releases the ball early and fires it down the off side. Sarah Bryce makes a sharp stumping and Lewis has to go for a stodgy 11 off 19.
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7th over: Ireland 35-1 (Hunter 18, Lewis 10) Kathryn Bryce, ringing the changes, brings herself back for a second over. Only four from it as Lewis is still playing herself in. When Hunter plays a punch for two, one of the commentators mentions that Scotland ran no fewer than 23 twos. The running was relentless, especially from the Bryce sisters: as Sarah drily remarked afterwards, “Me and Kathryn know each other pretty well.”
6th over: Ireland 31-1 (Hunter 15, Lewis 9) Bryce turns to spin for the first time, bringing on Kirstie Gordon, the Scot who used to play for England. She keeps up the good work with her slow left-arm, going for only three singles. So the powerplay ends with Scotland in the driving seat: of Ireland’s 31 runs so far, 15 came off one over. The required rate is already over 9, but Hunter and Lewis are still there.
5th over: Ireland 28-1 (Hunter 14, Lewis 8) No sooner has the plug come out than Rachel Slater shoves it back in. This over goes for just a single, and even that is a win for Scotland as Darcey Carter makes a fine diving stop at midwicket to deny Hunter another four. Slater has 2-0-3-0. Wind, what wind?
“Morning from a breezy Old Trafford,” says Guy Hornsby. “It’s the World Cup! Scotland have been really impressive since the Powerplay, with the Bryce sisters giving all the Irish bowlers problems. I think 170+ would have been a stretch today for Gaby Lewis’s team, but after that finish this is still very much gettable. And with the quality of Orla Prendergast and Lewis, Ireland will still feel they have a good shot here.”
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4th over: Ireland 27-1 (Hunter 12, Lewis 8) Ireland need a big over and the batters know it. As Fontenla goes too full, she concedes three fours: a straight drive from Lewis, a jammy slice from Hunter, and a much better stroke from Hunter – a cover drive that rings out like a rifle shot. Game on!
3rd over: Ireland 12-1 (Hunter 3, Lewis 3) After making the breakthrough, Kathryn Bryce promptly takes herself off. She wants a different angle, so here is Rachel Slater with her left-arm medium pace, showing good control and a bit of swing, and restricting each batter to a single.
2nd over: Ireland 10-1 (Hunter 2, Lewis 2) The silver lining for Ireland is that Gaby Lewis, their main woman, is in early. She takes a crisp two off Gabriella Fontenla, whose first over is pretty cool for an 18-year-old.
1st over: Ireland 7-1 (Hunter 1) Bryce strikes just as Ireland were thinking they’d got off to a good start.
Wicket! Dalzell c & b K Bryce 6 (Ireland 7-1)
She makes runs, she opens the bowling, she takes sharp catches! Kathryn Bryce sticks out a hand and Alana Dalzell has to go.
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1st five balls: Ireland 7-0 (Hunter 1, Dalzell 6) Kathryn Bryce, not content with making 60, opens the bowling. She starts with a ring of five on the off side, surprisingly for an inswing bowler. Amy Hunter goes back and across to nudge the first ball to leg. Alana Dalzell, taking the hint, glances for two. And then she sees a full-length inswinger and drills it for a handsome straight four. And then …
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That was an innings of three thirds. Ireland won the powerplay, even though their fielding wasn’t great. Scotland ruled the middle overs as the Bryce sisters built Scotland’s first fifty partnership in a T20 World Cup and then added another 56 for good measure. And Ireland fought back magnificently at the death, with Ava Canning producing the 19th over of her dreams. So we’ve had plenty of ebb-and-flow already. and an uneducated guess says that Ireland are now slight favourites, for two reasons. They’ve got the momentum, and the wind is now on their side, ready to mess with the bowlers’ rhythm and the fielders’ radar.
Scotland set Ireland 162 to win
20th over: Scotland 161-5 (McColl 1, Chatterji 6) It’s another good over for Ireland as Prendergast concedes only five, one of them a leg-bye. Priyanaz Chatterji manages a slog for two, but when she shapes for a switch hit off the last ball, she ends up playing tip and run. Prendergast finishes with 4-0-28-1, which, on merit, could easily have been 4-0-20-2.
19th over: Scotland 156-5 (McColl 1, Chatterji 1) That was the perfect penultimate over: two wickets, including the big one of Kathryn Bryce, and only two runs. Ava Canning finishes with 4-0-27-3 and she may have made all the difference.
Wicket! K Bryce c Murray b Canning 60 (Scotland 155-5)
And another! Canning goes wide of off and Bryce can only slice to extra-cover. A tame end to a terrific innings.
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Wicket! Lister b Canning 6 (Scotland 154-4)
Ava Canning deceives Lister with a slower ball outside off, then dismisses her with a slower ball on the pads.
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18th over: Scotland 153-3 (K Bryce 60, Lister 5) Lewis, needing to turn one wicket into two again, turns to the pace of Prendergast. And it nearly works as Ailsa Lister mistimes a pull. Alice Tector, running in from the deep, gets there but can’t hold on.
17th over: Scotland 147-3 (K Bryce 57, Lister 2) Well bowled Arlene Kelly, who got that big wicket and was also more frugal than anyone else today. She finishes with 4-0-24-1. But what a great partnership from the Bryce sisters: 106 off 10.5 overs.
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Wicket! S Bryce c Hunter b Kelly 49 (Scotland 142-3)
Kelly finds the edge and makes the breakthrough! Hunter, standing up, takes an effortless catch and Sarah Bryce has to go. She made an excellent 49 off 35 balls, with four fours and a six.
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16th over: Scotland 142-2 (K Bryce 54, S Bryce 49) Dalzell continues and so does the flow of runs. Kathryn reaches fifty with a thick edge for four and that brings up the hundred partnership too. The sisters meet in the middle of the pitch for a hug.
15th over: Scotland 133-2 (K Bryce 49, S Bryce 45) Lewis reverts to spin, giving Aimee Maguire a fourth over. Yet again things start quite well for Ireland and then go pear-shaped. Kathryn Bryce sends Maguire’s final ball sailing over midwicket for six! That’s 11 off the over but Maguire finishes with 4-0-36-1, not bad in the circumstances – the wind, the cold, the Bryces.
14th over: Scotland 122-2 (K Bryce 40, S Bryce 43) Seam at both ends as Alana Dalzell comes on. Like Kelly, she keeps it tight at first, but ends up conceding a four as Kathryn Bryce his a pull straight back past her. It wasn’t far from Dalzell’s fingers but it was hit so hard that we can’t put it down as a chance. At drinks, Scotland are on top: the partnership is 86 off only 51 balls.
13th over: Scotland 113-2 (K Bryce 34, S Bryce 41) Seeing her spinners suffer, Gaby Lewis goes back to seam. Arlene Kelly restores order, conceding only two off her first five balls, but then Sarah Bryce cuts for four. She’s been superb at finding the gaps.
12th over: Scotland 107-2 (K Bryce 33, S Bryce 38) The Bryces have seen Prendergast off for now. As she is replaced by Aimee Maguire, the runs keep coming. Each sister receives a full toss and both of them cash in, Sarah on the off side, Kathryn on the leg. Kathryn gets a half-volley too and drives it for four. That’s 16 off the over and 36 off the last two.
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11th over: Scotland 91-2 (K Bryce 25, S Bryce 29) Lewis keeps Murray on and soon regrets it as Sarah Bryce finds top gear. A drive for four, a lap for two, a chip for two more, a wide, a dancing drive for four, and best of all a swing for six!
That’s 20 off the over. The sisters have already added 55, the first 50 partnership for Scotland in the T20 World Cup. This is a chasing ground, and it now looks as if Ireland are going to have to chase a big total.
10th over: Scotland 71-2 (K Bryce 25, S Bryce 10) Orla Prendergast continues. She runs in with intent but the Bryces are equal to it. When Prendergast tries another bouncer, Kathryn hits a tennis shot that goes just over the sweeper. Fortune favours the brave. At the halfway stage, Scotland are well placed.
9th over: Scotland 63-2 (K Bryce 20, S Bryce 7) Lewis turns to Cara Murray’s leg-spin. The Bryces, using their feet well, milk it for ones and twos.
8th over: Scotland 56-2 (K Bryce 16, S Bryce 4) Knowing that this is the partnership she has to break, Lewis turns to her star all-rounder, Orla Prendergast. The keeper stands back for the first time. She takes a few balls to settle, giving Sarah Bryce an easy push for two, bowling two wides and allowing Kathryn to clip for two more. But when she bowls a third wide, it’s a good one – a snorting bumper that whistles past Kathryn’s nose. And she almost bags Sarah as a sliced cut drops short of the woman at backward point.
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7th over: Scotland 47-2 (K Bryce 13, S Bryce 1) Gaby Lewis keeps Canning on for a third over. The Bryces take a single apiece and then Kathryn goes on the attack again with a lofted cut for four, a force for two and a pull for two more. She has raced to 13 off only nine balls.
6th over: Scotland 37-2 (K Bryce 4, S Bryce 0) So the powerplay ends with Ireland on top. But the Bryce sisters are inn early and they are the big guns. Sraah starts more watchfully than her sister as Maguire’s over yields only two runs.
Wicket! Carter b Maguire 14 (Scotland 36-2)
One brings two! Gaby Lewis goes back to Aimee Maguire’s spin and her arm ball proves too much for Carter. With both openers back in the hutch, the fielders can feel good as they take drinks. Hot ones, I presume.
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5th over: Scotland 35-1 (Carter 14, K Bryce 3) In comes Kathryn Bryce and she starts with a ramp for two. Very cool.
WIcket! Fraser c Tector b Canning 15 (Scotland 30-1)
It’s been coming. Fraser goes for another big hit and gets a top edge. The ball sails into the grey sky and somewhere in the deep, Alice Tector does very well to hold onto it. I say somewhere because the cameras lost track of the ball. That’s how windy it is.
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4th over: Scotland 28-0 (Carter 12, Fraser 13) As Kelly continues, it’s Fraser’s turn to live dangerously. She clunks the first ball close to mid-on but collects two and celebrates with a four, chipped over mid-off. The Irish women think they’ve got her stumped, but she gets her foot down just in the nick of time.
3rd over: Scotland 21-0 (Carter 12, Fraser 6) Now it’s medium pace from both ends as Ava Canning replaces Maguire. Carter keeps swinging, chopping over the covers, pulling over midwicket, keeping every fielder interested but picking up two twos. With a pair of singles and a wide, the scoreboard is ticking over nicely.
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2nd over: Scotland 13-0 (Carter 7, Fraser 4) It’s seam from the other end, from Arlene Kelly, though Hunter stays up to the stumps. Fraser picks up two with a tuck and a single with a pull. Kelly keeps Carter quiet and beats the bat outside off, but then Carter slogs to leg and again comes close to being caught in the deep.
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1st over: Scotland 7-0 (Carter 5, Fraser 1) It’s Aimee Maguire, slow left-arm with a bustling run-up. She starts with a small stroke of luck as Darcey Carter misses a clip to leg. Then Carter clumps a single down the ground. Katherine Fraser, greeted by a short mid-on, reacts by trying to play square and misses with a sweep. She changes tack, dances down the pitch, drives for a single – that’s better. Carter follows suit, goes big and flirts with danger but just gets her on-drive over the woman at deep mid-on. Scotland are away!
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The Irish keeper , Amy Hunter, has her helmet on. So Gaby Lewis is handing the new ball to a spinner.
The anthems: a win for Scotland
Out come the players, each holding the hand of a mascot. Tweenagers rather than tinies, the mascots oook a bit sheepish. The spectators, in their hoodies and kagoules, are invited to stand if they are able. The Irish anthem comes first and it’s fine, but Scotland have the edge with a re-recorded version of Flower Of Scotland. It’s sung by a girls’ choir from George Watson’s College, the sporting powerhouse that produced Kathryn Bryce, her sister Sarah, and the 18-year-old seamer Gabriella Fontenla. And it’s piercingly good: there may be goosebumps in the crowd, and not just because of the cold.
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About last night
This World Cup started with a bang, not a whimper, thanks to Danni Wyatt-Hodge. Last month she gave birth to a daughter, Daisy; last night she blew Sri Lanka away.
The teams
Scotland 1 Darcey Carter, 2 Katherine Fraser, 3 Kathryn Bryce (capt), 4 Sarah Bryce, 5 Megan McColl, 6 Priyanaz Chatterji, 7 Ailsa Lister (wkt), 8 Rachel Slater, 9 Chloe Abel, 10 Kirstie Gordon, 11 Gabriella Fontenla.
Ireland 1 Amy Hunter (wkt), 2 Alana Dalzell, 3 Gaby Lewis (capt), 4 Orla Prendergast, 5 Rebecca Stokell, 6 Leah Paul, 7 Alice Tector, 8 Arlene Kelly, 9 Ava Canning, 10 Cara Murray, 11 Aimee Maguire.
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It's not raining!
… but it is cold. And so windy that, at the toss, everybody’s trousers were billowing like billy-ho. So both sides should be very much at home.
Toss: Ireland put Scotland in
Gaby Lewis of Ireland wins the toss. “We’re going to have a bowl,” she says. “It’s obviously overcast and the wicket’s been under cover.” Kathryn Bryce is honest enoiugh to say that she would have bowled first too.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to a rather different World Cup. One in which expanding the tournament means going from ten nations to 12. One in which we never hear a word from a tinpot dictator. One in which every match official makes it through the airport.
Today begins with a small piece of cricket history: the first meeting between Scotland and Ireland in a women’s World Cup. As Raf Nicholson, our resident expert, said in her tournament preview, it should be a cracker.
By mid-afternoon, we’ll almost certainly have another piece of history: the first win for either of these sides in a T20 World Cup. Ireland have made it to the finals four times before, playing 17 games and losing the lot. Scotland appeared for the first time in 2024, playing four games and also losing the lot. In sport, as Emma John observed in a wise column about the Ben Stokes shemozzle, everyone’s a loser.
Gaby Lewis, Ireland’s captain, says there’s a “massive rivalry” between the two nations. History is on Ireland’s side: in 15 T20 meetings with Scotland, all in the past eight years, they have won nine and lost six. But form is with Kathryn Bryce and Scotland, who won the last three of those games, including the latest, a World Cup qualifier in Nepal.
Both may be eyeng more than just a first victory. They’re in the gentler of the two groups with only one big gun – their mutual foes, England. Second place is expected to go to New Zealand (who are 4th in the world rankings), Sri Lanka (6th) or West Indies (7th), but Ireland (9th) and Scotland (11th) are entitled to dream of an upset. And both of them, when they face that lot, should have the edge in one crucial aspect of the game: reading the weather.
The Manchester climate may have something to say today with showers forecast around the start, though they’re unlikely to prevent a result. All being well, I’ll be back soon with news of the toss and the teams.
