Positives gained despite setbacks

	There was not much to celebrate for Ireland in the series against West Indies © ICC

It has hardly stopped raining since the arrival of the West Indies squad, apart from when there is nobody trying to play cricket. They came with lots of layers of clothing both on them, and in their bags. They had packed well, at least for the first leg of their trip.

Our first match on June 24 started late due to rain, but only eight overs were lost. Nadine George won the toss and, after a short conference with coach Sherwin Campbell, decided to bowl first. It was a day for bowling, and Ireland’s batting started very slowly. Wickets fell at regular intervals, and apart from Nicki Coffey, who scored 32, the performance was below-par.

Ireland were bowled out for 123, but we knew we were still in with a shout of winning the game. Once I and the other opening bowler, Marianne Herbert, became aware of just how much the ball was swinging, the West Indies top order struggled. Though they were scoring quickly, wickets were also falling regularly. At 32 for 4 from just 8.1 overs, the rain came to save the batting side. By the time we got back we had lost a lot of time. The second innings was reduced to 20 overs, which meant that the two opening bowlers had bowled all of their overs.

Next to bowl were debutants Melissa Scott Hayward and Amy Kenealy. Both struggled in their first overs because of the combined difficulty of the weather and the left and right batting combination. We knew we needed to get an early wicket, and two chances came. One was a catch at long-off, and the other a run out opportunity. Neither chance was taken and West Indies made us pay. They pushed the good balls for singles, and almost every bad ball went for four. Ultimately, that was the difference between the two teams.

Our match on Thursday was rained off, then came the Twenty20 on June 27 – Ireland’s first international in this form of the game.

We bowled after I won my first toss as captain, and started decently, but not before umpire Rodney Molins paid tribute to John Wright. Wright, who was a huge contributor to Irish cricket, and was presented with an ICC Global Award on his retirement, died last week. We had a minute’s silence in his honour before the match.

Once again West Indies lost a few early wickets, but soon Stefanie Taylor got into her stride, making 90 as they powered their way to 184. The Irish opening pair of Coffey and Clare Shillington looked comfortable early on. The tide turned when Coffey didn’t quite commit to a pull, causing her to be caught on the boundary. My sister, Cecelia, batted well to make 41, but that was the highlight of our final score, 109 for 7.

The sun finally came out for our last game on June 29, which was Joanne McKinley’s first match. We batted first, and were starting to get into our stride at 42 for no loss after 14 overs, but once again the ran made an appearance. Cecelia and Emma Beamish looked to have retained their touch when we came back out 50 minutes later. Their partnership was ended by a superb piece of fielding by Taylor, who effected a direct hit at the non-strikers end from point to end Cecelia’s knock of 38. Shillington batted very well for 54 before she was caught. We made it to 163 for 9 after the 50 overs.

Taylor anchored the innings again for her side with 66, and once again West Indies showed their ability to punish the bad ball, and stay disciplined for the good ones. They reached their target after just 35.5 overs with six wickets in hand.

Though it might look like there are too many positives for Ireland to take from this series, that is not the case. The team has changed a lot over the past few months, and a lot of responsibility was put on the shoulders of our inexperienced players. They proved that they are good enough to be playing at international level, and now know exactly what they need to work on to start taking wickets and making runs. I look forward to getting the squad back together again for some training sessions before our next ODI against South Africa in a few weeks' time.