Spinner Alana King and young quick Darcie Brown combined for five wickets as Australia registered a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Ireland in Derry.Chasing 100 runs was never going to be enough against this strong Australia batting line-up and the run chase was done and dusted inside 13 overs.
Australia openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney were obviously keen to knock off the runs as quickly as possible as they took 19 runs from the opening two overs of the chase.
Seamer Arlene Kelly intervened to remove Healy for 10 in the fifth over, but that was about as good as it got for the young Ireland side as the steady head of Lanning came to the crease to join Mooney. The pair batted sensibly for the majority of their unbeaten 68-run stand and dispatched the bad deliveries when required as they mowed down Ireland’s total with relative ease.
Earlier, experienced pacer Megan Schutt picked up the valuable wicket of Ireland young gun Gaby Lewis in the opening over of the match and the hosts were never able to recover. Young quick Darcie Brown bowled superbly to dismiss Orla Prendergast (12) and skipper Laura Delany (0) as she collected impressive figures of 2/9, while spinner Alana King was just as impressive.
King chimed in with figures of 3/9 from her four overs and was deservedly named Player of the Match for her heroics with the ball. Only four Ireland batters reached double figures after they were sent into bat by Australia captain Meg Lanning, with opener Rebecca Stokell top-scoring for the home side with a well-compiled 22.