Ireland square T20I series after another final-over thriller

Ireland 170 for 5 (Prendergast 80) beat England 169 for 8 (Beaumont 40) by five wickets

Ireland’s women squared the T20I leg of their series against England in thrilling – and familiar – fashion at Clontarf, with Mady Villiers reprising her heroic efforts at the death in last week’s third ODI, only for the contest to turn once again on a calamitous error in the field.

In Belfast on Wednesday, Villiers had engineered three wickets in as many balls, including a run-out, only for Hollie Armitage’s final-ball misfield to gift Ireland their winning boundary. This time it was Villiers herself who was at fault, despite having once again claimed back-to-back bowled dismissals to leave Ireland needing two runs from two balls with a brand-new batter on strike.

Christina Coulter Reilly, however, was able to scramble the winning runs after driving her first ball straight back at Villiers, who gathered and shied when she might have had time to turn and run for the stumps, and gave away two overthrows to allow Ireland to close out the campaign with their second nerve-jangling win in five games.

It was, nevertheless, a deserved win for Ireland – in particular for Orla Prendergast, whose 80 from 51 balls was the day’s stand-out performance. While she was marshalling the chase, with solid support initially from Gaby Lewis and then from Leah Paul, England’s inexperienced line-up had few answers, and at 163 for 2, with seven runs needed from seven balls, there was only one realistic winner.

Kate Cross, however, capped her maiden series as England captain with one last stand-out performance. Having dismissed Amy Hunter with the fourth ball of Ireland’s innings, she then bowled Prendergast with her final delivery of the tour to transfer all of the pressure onto Ireland’s middle-order.

After a single from Paul, Sarah Forbes found the boundary with her first ball off Villiers to reduce the requirement to two runs from four balls. But Villiers responded by prising out with her very next ball, then added Jane Maguire first-ball to give England a huge opportunity to close out the series with a 2-0 win. It wasn’t to be.

Earlier, England had posted a competitive 169 for 8 after being asked to bat first. Bryony Smith followed her matchwinning fifty in Saturday’s opening T20I with 28 from 26 balls in an opening stand of 44 with Tammy Beaumont, who top-scored with 40 from 34.

Paige Scholfield made 34 from 31 to inject some urgency through the middle overs, but Prendergast served notice of a fine allround display with two wickets in as many overs to dent England’s big finish, before a brace of run-outs in the final over. As it turned out, those missing runs would prove crucial.

“I knew if I got myself in and got a start, I would convert and accelerate towards the back end,” Prendergast told TNT Sports at the end of the match. “It was our last game of the summer. To put in a really good performance to finish to show how good a side we are was what motivated us.”

“We’ve kept ourselves in the game and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Cross added. “But Mady’s overs and tight finishes seem to be a theme of the week.

“Orla batted brilliantly, she put us under a lot of pressure. We were trying to keep her off strike, but she kept finding the boundary. Sometimes, you just have to accept that someone has batted well, but we could have won that game right at the end there.

“Pressure does funny things to people. If you give Mady that moment again, 99 times out of 100 she just runs and knocks the bails off.”