A chilly Sunday morning turned into a warm, sunny afternoon as Ireland pulled off a hard-fought victory by 15 runs in the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka – and in the process wrapping up the three-match series with one match to spare.
In her first duty as Ireland skipper, Orla Prendergast lost the toss and was put into bat and after Friday’s heroics, it may have seemed like a case of ‘start where you left off’ for Ireland’s batters. After losing Sarah Forbes in the 6th over, Amy Hunter and ODI debutant Christina Coulter Reilly steadied the ship with a 45-run partnership as Hunter was in fine form hitting 8 fours before Chamari Athapaththu dismissed her for 66. After the two quick wickets of Coulter Reilly and Prendergast, Ireland required some consolidation and a rebuild – enter Leah Paul and Rebecca Stokell.
The pair dug in and entertained the crowd with sensible batting mixed with flourishes to the boundary in what was a record-breaking highest 5th wicket partnership for Ireland Women. When Leah Paul was finally dismissed for 81, she might have had her sights on her eventual Player of the Match award after an immense performance for her team. Rebecca Stokell carried on to bring up a half-century of her own as she remained not out on 53 going into the interval.
255 was the total and runs were on the board, but the Irish knew they had some work to do as the sun shone down on the picturesque Stormont ground.
Sri Lanka walked to the crease needing 256 to win the game and level the three-match ODI series as skipper Prendergast took the new ball to get Ireland’s defence underway. With the score on 46-1 Jane Maguire struck gold dismissing the dangerous Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu for 22. Despite their best efforts, there was a prolonged period of resistance by Harshitha Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari who put on 126 runs for the 3rd wicket. Samarawickrama batted beautifully as she brought up her maiden ODI ton and was eventually run out by the combination of Sarah Forbes and Amy Hunter. Dilhari’s resistance faltered as she was caught out by Aimee Maguire off the bowling of Freya Sargent for 53 and it was at this point that the wickets continued to fall for the tourists.
Ireland dominated the next phase of the game and chipped away at the Sri Lanka batters much to the enjoyment of the crowd and player’s families. Arlene Kelly took the last wicket as the clean bowled Udeshika Prabodhani to seal a famous series win.
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