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Ireland Women suffered a heavy defeat to Pakistan yesterday after taking 40 overs to reach just 94.
It was a toss to win on a wicket that was a dream to bowl on in Mosely, Birmingham. Clare Shillington and Isobel Joyce, who had scored freely early on in the two T20 matches on Monday found it a different game yesterday when they struggled with the two-paced, seaming pitch in the first 10 overs. Eventually Shillington (3) succumbed to a short delivery which she didn’t quite get hold of and she was caught at point.

Joyce (4) was out LBW playing around her pad and Eimear Richardson (0) was out soon after to a screaming catch in the slips. Melissa Scott-Hayward survived well in at four and played a few cracking shots for her 18. Mary Waldron showed good application for her 17 while Kim Garth (25) was Pakistan’s most obstinate opponent and was last out when she was run out backing up.

The total was 94 and Ireland were left to rue the fact that they could not set even a slightly higher target when Kim Garth showed how dangerous she could be with the new ball. The Pakistanis, however, were able to just stick in knowing that they had plenty of time to score their runs.

Garth went for 24 in her seven overs but her figures belie an excellent spell of bowling. The Pembroke seamer was unlucky not to find the edge on about a dozen occasions and when the edge was found, the ball did not, unfortunately, find the slips.

Joyce opened at the other end but it seemed the pitch was almost doing too much for either opener to find the edge and the Pakistan openers knew they just had to stay there to win the match. As Ireland searched for wickets, gaps opened in the field and the girls in green lost on the last ball of the 20th over.

The Ireland captain says there are positives to take out, even from such a heavy defeat. “The girls are very disappointed, that’s probably an understatement. I was proud of how they fought to the end and made Pakistan work for every run, though. I really think that if we had bowled first they might have found it as difficult as we did, but having said that, we didn’t show enough grit in our batting.

“As soon as Clare and I had faced a few overs we reassessed our targets and thought that 150 might be enough to win on this track, but we fell 50 short. The pleasing thing for me was that we were trying the right things and we were out due to poor execution as opposed to what maybe happened in the past when we played with fear.

“I was delighted for young Lucy O’Reilly who bowled three overs and took her first international wicket, the first for the team in two games. As she gets used to playing in international cricket more, I have no doubt she will be one of the most exciting players Ireland has in the set-up,” Joyce added.

“I’m really looking forward to the three matches next week in YMCA and hopefully the team can show some character and come back strong ahead of the Qualifiers the following week.”

For the scorecards of this game and the two T20s on Monday, click here.

Cricket Ireland
Ireland lost to Pakistan in their ODI yesterday
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