Shillington shines for Irish

CLARE SHILLINGTON took the batting honours as Ireland began their World T20 qualifying campaign with back-to-back victories over Thailand and Scotland in the Netherlands over the weekend to grab top spot in Group B.

Veteran opener Shillington made 38 as the Girls in Green opened with a seven-wicket victory over the Asian side in Utrecht on Saturday, and was again top scorer with 47 as Ireland eased to a nine-wicket win against Scotland yesterday in Amstelveen.

Lucy O’Reilly’s 3-23 had helped restrict Thailand to 92-7 in the first game, while she took a wicket with her first ball as Scotland were restricted to 98-2.

Shillington said: “Our bowlers were excellent and it was great to see Kim Garth with the ball in hand. Everyone is delighted to see her back from injury.”

Leinster Lightning beat the North-West Warriors by 41 runs at Sydney Parade on Saturday to retain the Hanley Energy T20 title win a game to spare. John Anderson made 76 not out in a Lightning total of 182-3 before the Warriors replied with 141-8.

England came up short in their Bristol decider as Rohit Sharma’s world record-equalling third Twenty20 international century eased India to a series-sealing seven-wicket victory.

Jason Roy (67) threatened to put England’s stamp on this Vitality IT20 occasion as a vivid green pitch belied its bizarre appearance to serve up another run-fest .

But the hosts failed to capitalise on the start provided by Roy and Jos Buttler’s opening stand of 94, as Hardik Pandya took a career-best four wickets for 38 runs and then Rohit (100 not out) and Virat Kohli did the rest to pass a target of 198 for nine.