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The Ireland Women’s head coach declared his squad fit and ready to perform at the ICC Women’s World Cup T20 Qualifier tournament in Netherlands over the next 10 days, with a successful campaign seeing them go through to the main event in the Caribbean in November.
“It has been a rollercoaster of a season for the squad – the New Zealand White Ferns series was chastening and a learning experience for all, but the Bangladesh series demonstrated why we belong amongst the best 10 teams in the world by taking the Asia Cup champions down to the wire on three separate occasions,” said Aaron Hamilton, Head Coach of the Ireland Women’s team.

“The squad has recovered well from the large amount of cricket we have played in June and into July, but through squad rotation and the nurturing of a number of players returning from injury, we have arrived here in the Netherlands pretty much at full strength. We will have both Kim Garth and Lucy O’Reilly ready to go – they are certainly a big part of our bowling attack and have been missed in recent times.”

“We’ve spoken as a unit about how we will tackle the task ahead, and I’m confident that if we play to our abilities then we will have a good shot at getting through to the World T20 later in the year. The planning is done, now it is time to deliver.”

Image: Head Coach Aaron Hamilton oversees preparations

Captain Laura Delany, who has held the leadership role since 2016, joined her coach in outlining the expectations of the squad over the coming days.

“It’s been a busy time for all of the players, balancing competitive international cricket with work and study commitments. One thing the squad does not need though is extra motivation – we have that and more. The experienced players just want to show the world what they can do, while the younger players are itching to get a taste of international tournament experience.”

“The way we bounced back from the New Zealand series and put on three great performances against Bangladesh shows the calibre of this side. We learned, we applied these learnings and we came away with much improved results, including that last ball win in the third match.”

“We have a day to acclimatise and get some practice in tomorrow, then have a warm-up match against Papua New Guinea on Thursday. This should give us a good lead-in to the first Qualifier match against Thailand. It will be a trickier fixture than some may think given their recent win over Sri Lanka, but if we can play the way we know we can, then we will have a great shot at winning.”

Image: Captain Laura Delany has carried good form with both bat and ball into the tournament

The Ireland squad is:

Laura Delany (C), Kim Garth, Cecelia Joyce, Isobel Joyce, Shauna Kavanagh, Gaby Lewis, Lara Maritz, Ciara Metcalfe, Cara Murray, Lucy O’Reilly, Eimear Richardson, Clare Shillington, Rebecca Stokell, Mary Waldron.

As always, we’d like to acknowledge the support of Hanley Energy, main sponsor for the Ireland Women’s Cricket Team.

Fixtures

Thu 5 July – Ireland Women vs Papua New Guinea Women (Warm-up, VOC, Rotterdam)
Sat 7 July – Ireland Women vs Thailand Women (WT20Q, Kampong Cricket Club, Utrecht)
Sun 8 July – Ireland Women vs Scotland Women (WT20Q, VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen)
Tue 10 July – Ireland Women vs Uganda Women (WT20Q, VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen)
Thu 12 July – Play-Off Semi-Finals
Sat 14 July – Play-Off Finals

The team has left for the Netherlands
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