Orla Prendergast soldiers on as Ireland earn historic T20 win against England

Ireland secured their first Twenty20 win against England at Clontarf Cricket Club on Sunday, completing a record run chase off the penultimate ball after Mady Villiers attempted to force a run-out, missed the stumps and allowed the two Irish batters to run an overthrow.

Orla Prendergast had struck a career-best 80 from 51 balls, but was bowled by Kate Cross off the last ball of the 19th over, with Ireland needing seven runs from the final six balls.

After Leah Paul managed a single from the first ball of Villiers’s 20th over, Sarah Forbes just cleared the head of Hollie Armitage at extra cover to send the second to the boundary, but Villiers then bowled Forbes and Ava Canning with successive deliveries. Christina Coulter Reilly then tapped the fifth ball back to the bowler and hared down the pitch, and Villiers’s wild shy at the stumps allowed her to race back for a second run, sealing Ireland’s win by five wickets with one ball to spare.

The Ireland captain, Gaby Lewis, said she was “absolutely ecstatic” at the victory, which was screened live on free-to-air television in Ireland. “It shows the direction we’re heading in with women’s sport,” she said. “With the extra eyes on the game, we can hopefully expand cricket in Ireland.”

Both captains, meanwhile, called for more regular encounters between the two sides, who have faced each other just five times in the 20‑over format. “We need the next tour to be longer,” Cross said. “Ireland are a team that are playing a lot of fearless cricket at the minute.”

Earlier, Tammy Beaumont struck 40 from 34 balls – her highest score in the format since September 2021 – as England reached what looked like an unassailable 169 for eight in their 20 overs. It was only seven runs fewer than they had scored in the opening game on Saturday, which they won by 67 runs.

In reply, Lewis staged a 79-run partnership with Prendergast for the second wicket, putting England’s bowlers and Cross’s captaincy under real pressure as they bested England’s own powerplay by two runs.

Ryana MacDonald-Gay, on her T20 debut eight days after she received her ODI cap, took out Lewis’s middle stump with a wobble-steam delivery, but Prendergast progressed to a 39-ball half-century, sharing a second 50-run partnership with Paul.

Ireland were still left needing 42 runs from the last four overs, which looked a big ask until Prendergast creamed Charis Pavely and Georgia Adams for four successive boundaries down the ground.

England fluffed two chances to see off Paul in the 18th over – Adams put down a tough rebound catch off her own bowling, before Seren Smale fumbled a stumping opportunity – while Prendergast was also put down by Cross, before the stand-in England captain bowled her next ball.

“Pressure does very funny things to people,” Cross said. “What it does is highlight how calm you need to be. We had another debutant today, we had some girls playing their second games for England. In regional cricket when there’s no crowd there you can sometimes get away with [mistakes], but in international cricket it’s highlighted.”

England finish the tour having presented a total of six one-day international and five T20 caps – something Cross recognised as an invaluable opportunity for the next generation.

“A lot of these girls have got a brilliant future ahead of them in international cricket – they’ve all at parts of the tour shown what they can do and why they’re here, and that’s been really exciting for us,” she said.

Ireland had again inserted England after winning the toss, but the openers Beaumont and Bryony Smith resumed at a more sedate pace than Saturday – a 44-run powerplay, as compared to a 65-run one.

England’s innings gathered pace through the middle overs, as Beaumont found her stride in a 50 partnership from just 27 balls for the third wicket with Paige Scholfield. After falling for a duck on debut on Saturday, Scholfield seized her chance here to display her muscle, sending Freya Sargent’s off-spin sailing back over her head for the only six of the day.

The pair fell in successive overs at the death – both caught trying for further big shots down the ground – while Ireland tightened up their fielding to ensure Pavely and Issy Wong were both run out in the final over.

Prendergast’s badly grazed hand, an injury sustained while in England for a recent three-match stint with the Blaze in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, has plagued her throughout this series. It was no different on Sunday: play had to be paused for five minutes while the wound was cleaned and dressed.

But it was worth the wait for Ireland: Prendergast bowled Armitage for a duck, sent Adams’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground, and went on to play the match-winning hand with the bat.