Scotland off to a flyer with T20 victory in Ireland by 11 runs

Scotland’s women returned to international cricket with a bang taking an 11-run victory over Ireland in the first match of their four-game T20I series in Belfast.

Katie McGill celebrates taking the third wicket for Scotland.

Ireland, ranked 10th in the world, three places ahead of the Scots, were favoured going into the match despite neither side having played international cricket since they last met in September 2019.

When they were set a target of 88 for victory by the Scots who won the toss and batted first, it looked as if they would be headed for victory.

But Scotland led by Kathryn Bryce, produced an impressively tight fielding display, with disciplined bowling performances across the board to keep their Celtic rivals hemmed in and needing to score 55 runs off the final 50 balls.

Player of the match Katie McGill, top scorer in the Scotland batting line-up with 20 runs, took three for 18 off four overs, with youngster Katherine Fraser also producing an accomplished performance with the ball, taking two for 15.

The match also saw Abbi Aitken-Drummond equal Kari Carswell as Scotland’s most capped women’s player on 151 caps as the side took just their third victory against Ireland.

Head coach Mark Coles was pleased to see his side take victory in his first international match.

He said: “Our batting definitely needs a bit of work, but they hung in there and fought, played some pretty fearless cricket and I thought they were really brave.”

Captain Kathryn Bryce said it was “a brilliant start to the week”.

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