New-look Irish batting line-up sweeps series

IRELAND duly  completed a 3-0 clean sweep of their T20 series with Zimbabwe yesterday, despite leaving some of their biggest stars kicking their heels.

For the dead rubber, new coach Lloyd Tennent made three personnel changes, but more significantly he revised the order to give some batters a chance to shine.

And how some of them did. Rebecca Stokell has always been an exciting player, bludgeoning big scores off club and Evoke SuperSeries attacks, but has rarely had the chance to shine for Ireland. Her role is to come in at five or six, to hit big and score quickly. She has done well at times, and her overall strike rate is still around the 100 mark.

In 53 Twenty20s internationals she has yet to make a fifty, but she came close yesterday. Set to open with Amy Hunter, she showed off a wide range of shots beyond her trademark straight hitting.

The pair rewarded Tennent’s enterprise with a partnership of 96, which was ended off the first ball of the 11th over when Hunter, on 59, skied a drive off Beloved Biza which the bowler raced to collect herself at midwicket.

Stokell fell soon after for her highest T20 score for four years, 38 games ago.

She took on the fielder, Nyasha Gwanzura, but she who hesitates turning for a second is lost, and she was duly run out for 45 off 29 balls.

Hunter hit nine fours and a six, bouncing back from scores of nine and one, and admitted later that ‘I was pretty desperate to get runs today, not getting runs in the first two games wasn’t great. I like taking the game on, so was having super-clear plans and following those paid off,’ she added.

Louise Little also got a promotion, coming in at three but looked edgy and took a while to find her fluency, eventually hoicking Sibanda to Makusha at point for 24 off 27 balls.

Laura Delany and Orla Prendergast helped Ireland to 179-4, passing Monday’s total, and keeping Gaby Lewis on the bench for the first time in almost a decade.

Ireland’s new look attack would have heartened Tennent further, with the recalled Ava Canning and Sophie McMahon the pick of the bunch, and Cara Murray picking up her seventh wicket (for 52) in the series in just 10 overs. Zimbabwe made 129-7, falling to a 50-run defeat.

Lewis said: ‘With the three coming in it was nice to sit on the sideline and watch them take it on. We all had confidence in the girls, and it shows the depth we have in the squad. That everyone is pushing for spots is great.’