Ireland ease to victory as Belfast teenager Hunter re-writes the record books

Ireland (223/3) beat Germany (44/8) by 179 runs

A record-breaking century from Amy Hunter was the highlight as Lloyd Tennant’s Ireland team were comfortable victors against an inexperienced Germany.

Ireland’s innings began cautiously. Germany’s opening bowler, Ashwini Balaji, is a pace bowler whose action is so gloriously slingy it appears that her right hand is adjacent to her left heel in the moment before delivery.  Like many bowlers with a slingy action, when her radar is working, she can be a very tricky customer, spearing the ball in at the batter’s toes and causing moments of genuine discomfort. Amy Hunter and Christina Coulter Reilly showed her due respect for one over and then quickly expanded their range of shots through the powerplay.

It was Hunter who dominated the hitting throughout. Ireland reached 59/0 by the end of the sixth over, but with Coulter Reilly failing to score at better than a run a ball and only contributing one boundary in the first nine overs, she really needed to get a move on or get out. She tried to do the first and therefore succeeded in doing the second of these two options, bowled by the impressive Rameesha Shahid.

The arrival of Leah Paul saw Ireland accelerate towards the sort of total they wanted. Paul and Hunter hit 144 runs from the next 11 overs, manipulating the ball into gaps as well as hitting powerfully square of the wicket as the German team struggled to contain them. Ameya Kanukuntla was probably the pick of the German bowlers, the 17 year old right arm medium pace bowler contributing dot balls in the powerplay and at the death.

Hunter reached her second T20i century in the 19^th over and went on to score her highest T20 score for Ireland: 114 not out from 67 balls. Leah Paul deservedly got a half century and finished the innings on 62 not out from just 33 balls.

Ireland’s 223/1 was always going to be too many for this German team, but just as they did yesterday against the Netherlands, their aim was to bat as long as possible and gain valuable experience playing against much higher level opposition. 

The fact that they did manage to bat for 20 overs was a credit to them. They managed two boundaries (compared to just one yesterday against the Netherlands) and the impressive Ameya Kanukuntla hung around for 39 balls, only scoring 9 runs, but preserving her wicket and was only dismissed with two balls to go, therefore ensuring that her team batted the full allocation, reaching 44/8 at the end. 

Ireland’s most effective bowler was Leah Paul, who followed up her impressive batting with bowling figures of 2/4 from her three overs. Jane Maguire, recalled for this game, also looked impressive in her three overs, conceding only one run and taking the wicket of Germany’s opener, Wilhelmina Garcia. 

So a convincing win for Ireland on the road to what seems certain qualification for the Global Qualifier in January, and a great day out for Amy Hunter, who becomes the youngest player ever to have scored two T20I hundreds.