Bangladesh v Ireland Women's ODI & T20 series

Prior to the start of the Ireland Women's ODI series against Bangladesh Women on Wednesday, vice captain Orla Prendergast gave a statement from the team hotel earlier today.

Since making her debut in 2019, Prendergast, 22, has amassed 85 caps for Ireland, ranking her as the 12th most capped player for Ireland Women. The former football player feels she made the right choice by deciding to focus on her cricket career instead. Regarding her cricket career:

I'm in love with it; it's almost like a dream. Considering our most recent home campaign, we had such a successful and upbeat conclusion to that summer thanks to those outstanding victories over England and Sri Lanka. Then, I guess it was really big for me to be able to go to the Big Bash. As a chance for myself, it was a really positive experience. In a sense, the past few months have been somewhat hectic, but I'm really enjoying it.

Prendergast traveled from Australia, where she played nine games for the Adelaide Strikers in the Women's Big Bash League, to join the Irish team on Friday night.

It was a lot of fun and really cool. But certainly difficult at times. In my opinion, the standard there is, in a sense, completely different. But it was a lot of fun. The good—and challenging—thing about franchise cricket, I think, is that I got to play a new role with bat and ball. Overall, though, it was a really great experience with many of lessons that I want to apply to this series.

What does she hope Bangladesh will provide?

When comparing their games over the last 12 to 24 months, a lot of spin has been bowled. We have undoubtedly been talking about and getting ready for that as a major theme. Naturally, they also have a few seamers who have been playing solidly. Thus, that is what we will be watching for. To be honest, though, I believe that concentrating on our own games has also been a part of the analysis process. I believe we are aware of how well we performed in the latter part of the summer, but we have also developed as a team over the last 12 months, so as much as we concentrate on them and we are definitely aware of their main bowlers and key batters. 

CHEDULE

The series will be played between 27 November and 9 December with all games live-streamed on the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s Youtube channel.

• 27 November 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (1st ODI; Mirpur; start 10am)
• 30 November 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (2nd ODI; Mirpur; start 10am)
• 2 December 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (3rd ODI; Mirpur; start 10am)

• 5 December 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (1st T20I; Sylhet; start 2pm)
• 7 December 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (2nd T20I; Sylhet; start 2pm)
• 9 December 2024: Bangladesh v Ireland (3rd T20I; Sylhet; start 10am)

             * all times local to the venue

The three ODIs are part of the ICC Women's Championship.

SQUADS

Ireland Women ODI Squad:

• Gaby Lewis (captain) (Phoenix), Ava Canning (Leinster), Christina Coulter Reilly (Clontarf), Alana Dalzell (Bready), Laura Delany (Leinster), Sarah Forbes (Pembroke), Amy Hunter (Instonians/Malahide), Arlene Kelly (Malahide), Aimee Maguire (The Hills), Cara Murray (Waringstown/Clontarf), Leah Paul (Merrion), Orla Prendergast (Pembroke), Una Raymond-Hoey (Ringwood), Freya Sargent (Clontarf), Alice Tector (Phoenix).

Ireland Women T20 Squad:

• Gaby Lewis (captain) (Phoenix), Ava Canning (Leinster), Christina Coulter Reilly (Clontarf), Alana Dalzell (Bready), Laura Delany (Leinster), Sarah Forbes (Pembroke), Amy Hunter (Instonians/Malahide), Arlene Kelly (Malahide), Aimee Maguire (The Hills), Cara Murray (Waringstown/Clontarf), Leah Paul (Merrion), Orla Prendergast (Pembroke), Una Raymond-Hoey (Ringwood), Freya Sargent (Clontarf), Rebecca Stokell (Merrion).