Shillington continues to fire in T20 qualifying

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Clare Shillington recently announced that she would retire from cricket at the end of the ICC World T20 in the West Indies, should Ireland get there, and she’s saying her goodbye in style this week in the Netherlands.

Following yesterday’s Player of the match performance, when she scored 38 runs en route to a victory over Thailand, Shillington again performed exceptionally well with the bat scoring 47 off 39 balls as Ireland beat Scotland by 9 wickets.

Scotland, who had a comfortable victory over Uganda yesterday, were expected to make it a tough test for this Irish team. However, Ireland’s bowlers Isobel Joyce and Lisa O’Reilly were in fine form from the off, restricting the Scots to only 26 runs after just 8 overs. 

18 year-old Sarah Bryce was the only positive for the Scots, posting a career best T20 score of 49 off 55 balls, as they could only manage 98/2 for their 20 overs.

Ireland, for who 17 year-old Gaby Lewis gained her 50th cap prior to the game, eased to victory as Shillington and Cecelia Joyce posted 90 runs in their opening partnership. Shillington went on 47, bowled by the aforementioned Bryce, before Lewis herself hit the winning runs with with less than five overs remaining.

Shillington was quick to praise her team-mates following the win, “I think we pretty much won the game in the field today. I thought our bowlers were excellent - Dellers [Laura Delany] led with the ball, she was superb and very miserly with her runs.”

“It was great to see Kim Garth back with the ball in hand, I think everyone is delighted to see her back as she's a real asset to our team. The job had been pretty much done by half-way and then Cecelia and I were able to take it home comfortably enough."

For Ireland, a win over Uganda on Tuesday will guarantee top spot in the group.