‘Job one done’, Clare Shillington looks to end on a high

It was the semi-final of the tournament, against Papua New Guinea, with the winners booking their tickets to the ICC Women’s World T20 2018 in the Caribbean.

Shillington was the one Ireland looked to for a good start, but she fell for a two-ball duck. A rare failure for the opener with 38, 47 and 27 before the game, but Ireland still won.

“I think I’ve had to graft a few innings and there’s definitely more in the tank. It was sad not to kind of get through a few overs today – obviously batting first is more of a chance of batting longer; we’ve been chasing relatively small totals. So that was a shame, but as long as we can go through, and I can contribute in the final and we win, that’s the main thing,” said Shillington, looking ahead to the final against Bangladesh on Saturday.

Shillington, however, didn’t shrink away from giving herself credit for helping her team get as far as they have.

“That’s been important to get us here. I suppose I can’t do it every day,” she said.

With no runs coming from Shillington, Gaby Lewis (36) and Laura Delany (21*) took the lead to get Ireland to 113/6, and the bowlers – Lucy O’Reilly the star with 3/13 – then stopped PNG at 86.

“We had to dig deep with our bowling, it was rocky at one stage, but Gaby did a really good job coming in and getting us through and Dellers batted through to the end. I always thought once we were up over 100, we’ll be safe enough. We would have liked to put in a better batting performance, but we can put that right by Saturday,” observed Shillington.

“Obviously, we’re all pretty excited to get through, and that was our goal from the start. It’s job one done, and now we are looking to win the tournament and go through as the top team from the tournament. Obviously, we have looked ahead to the groupings at the World Cup, and it will be to our benefit to win this tournament.”

The opponents in the final are Bangladesh, ranked one spot higher than Ireland in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Team Rankings. In a three-match series prior to the qualifiers, Bangladesh beat Ireland 2-1 in Dublin, all three matches going into the last over and two to the last ball.

“We had a really good series with Bangladesh before we came here with three games that went down to the last over every game, two down to the last ball, and we won the last game and we thought it was a really good test coming into this,” said Shillington.

Shillington can count herself an Irish legend for her exploits in a green jersey, which include becoming her country's first ever T20 centurion in a game against Japan - the game didn't have international status. And she has also earned a place in fans' hearts for her efforts, combined with those of leg-spinner Ciara Metcalfe, who this tournament reached the milestone of 100 Irish wickets, to keep supporters informed while on tour.

"We just started a little video blog, 'Hairy and Brains' a couple of years ago when we were overseas to keep people informed," she said. "People have liked it so we’ve tried to keep it going. It’s fairly light-hearted. Unfortunately I’m ‘Hairy’, that goes back to when I was little, my dad’s nickname for me was ‘Hairy Clarey’ which stuck with my good friend Ciara. I for some reason have called her ‘Brains’ but she doesn’t have any brains, ironic I think."

She hinted that the World T20 in the Caribbean might be the end of her and Metcalfe's playing careers, but also suggested that even when they do retire from playing, 'Hairy and Brains' might live on.

"The Caribbean will be Hairy and Brains’ last tour, I think we’ll be hanging up our boots at the end of that," she said. "It will be our last official tour playing, but I’m sure we’ll keep it going as spectators after that."