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Ireland take on Scotland in the semi-final of the Women’s World T20 on Thursday morning, knowing a victory will secure them a place in the ICC Women’s World T20 to be held in India next spring.
Having topped their group with maximum points the Irish side are confident heading into the match, particularly after they beat Scotland in a warm-up match just two weeks ago. Ireland beat the Netherlands, China and Zimbabwe to make it through to the semi-finals, while Scotland beat hosts Thailand and Papua New Guinea either side of a defeat to Group A winners Bangladesh.

Scotland have been involved in three low scoring games in the group stages, opening their campaign by bowling out Papua New Guinea for just 53, before they themselves were bowled out for the same score against Bangladesh. On both occasions the side chasing lost just two wickets and not surprisingly won with ease.

Their third game was a lot closer though, with Thailand posted what seemed to be an underwhelming 74-7 from their 20 overs, with Scotland not able to reach their target until the penultimate over. They had however lost just four wickets.

Of the Scottish bowlers Kirstie Gordon has perhaps been the most impressive, picking up four wickets while maintaining a good economy rate under four runs per over for the tournament. On the batting front they have been a lot less consistent, but Rachel Scholes has impressed with the bat to complement the bowling she has done.

Ireland go into the match with several players in top form, Cecelia Joyce, who won her 100th cap during the group stages has impressed with the bat top scoring on two occasions at the top of the order.

Twin sister Isobel Joyce has been equally as devastating in the group stage taking nine wickets on top of a 41 not out in the game against China. Fast bowlers Kim Garth and Lucy O’Reilly have also been in top form, with O’Reilly in particular having an outstanding economy rate throughout the group stage.

Head coach Aaron Hamilton has been pleased with the way things have gone so far and is not looking to make many changes to the way the team operate on Thursday.

“I’m very happy with the group, we are playing some really good cricket.

“I’ve just asked the group to keep taking their opportunities when they come and to really dominate in the field. Once the players acclimatised to the heat they were fine, we had a couple of good fielding sessions in the first two days and from then on they were away, the batters adjusted quickly in the warm matches.”

The match gets underway at 6.45am Irish time and you can follow all of the action on cricketireland.ie and on our official twitter feed @irelandcricket.

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