Ireland v England: Women’s T20 World Cup – live

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The players head out onto to bright green outfield and belt out the anthems. We’ll be underway in just a couple of minutes, just time to grab a cuppa.

In case you missed it:

Picture perfect Paarl

Here are the teams:

Ireland: Hunter, Lewis, Prendergast, Delany (c), Richardson, Little, Waldron (wk), Paul, Kelly, Murray, Maguire

England: Wyatt, Dunkley, Capsey, N Sciver-Brunt, Knight (C), Jones (wk), K Sciver-Brunt, Ecclestone, Dean, Glenn, Bell

Ireland win the toss and will bat first

The sun is scorching down in Paarl and the wicket looks a biscuit coloured belter. “Looks a good wicket, can’t wait to get out there with the bat,” says Ireland skipper Laura Delany. “There’s a good buzz and energy around the group. We’re playing three spinners, the rest are seamers and batters.”

Teams coming up!

Preamble

Hello and welcome to sunny Paarl (by way of a sofa in *equally* sunny south London) for the OBO of Ireland v England in the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Cricket is bonkers sometimes eh? You all know this of course but here’s a new one. Imagine being in the dressing room hoicking on your coloured kit to go out and represent your country in a World Cup match whilst potentially the biggest thing to happen in your career/life is happening simultaneously in an auction room in a different time zone. That’s the bafflingly unique scenario that some of today’s players find themselves in – one ear on the gavel at the Women’s Premier League Auction and everything else trained on the task in hand.

The auction is still ongoing at the Jio World Convention Centre at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai. I’ll try and post some of the big news during the build up to the start of today’s game. Oh yeh, there’s a game on. A World Cup one.

Heather Knight’s England coasted through their first game – a seven wicket win with 33 balls to spare against West Indies but they won’t be taking Ireland lightly. Laura Delany’s team are fresh off beating Australia in Stellenbosch a few days ago, a gritty all round team performance that saw them come out on top against the current World Champions with just two balls and three wickets left. Ireland haven’t played a T20 World Cup game for five years but have already proved they will be a threat to some of the bigger sides (India, Pakistan and West Indies) in group two as they get their campaign underway today in Paarl.

Play begins at 1pm GMT, I’ll be back with the news of the toss and teams shortly, please do get in touch if you are tuning in, you can holler at me on email or tweet @Jimbo_Cricket.