Key events<\/p>\n
The Irish keeper , Amy Hunter, has her helmet on. So Gaby Lewis is handing the new ball to a spinner.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a>The anthems: a win for Scotland<\/p>\n Out come the players, each holding the hand of a mascot. Tweenagers rather than tinies, the mascots oook a bit sheepish. The spectators, in their hoodies and kagoules, are invited to stand if they are able. The Irish anthem comes first and it\u2019s fine, but Scotland have the edge with a re-recorded version of Flower Of Scotland. It\u2019s sung by a girls\u2019 choir from George Watson\u2019s College, the sporting powerhouse that produced Kathryn Bryce, her sister Sarah, and the 18-year-old seamer Gabriella Fontenla. And it\u2019s piercingly good: there may be goosebumps in the crowd, and not just because of the cold.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>About last night<\/p>\n This World Cup started with a bang, not a whimper, thanks to Danni Wyatt-Hodge. Last month she gave birth to a daughter, Daisy; last night she blew Sri Lanka away.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>The teams<\/p>\n Scotland 1 Darcey Carter, 2 Katherine Fraser, 3 Kathryn Bryce (capt), 4 Sarah Bryce, 5 Megan McColl, 6 Priyanaz Chatterji, 7 Ailsa Lister (wkt), 8 Rachel Slater, 9 Chloe Abel, 10 Kirstie Gordon, 11 Gabriella Fontenla.<\/p>\n Ireland 1 Amy Hunter (wkt), 2 Alana Dalzell, 3 Gaby Lewis (capt), 4 Orla Prendergast, 5 Rebecca Stokell, 6 Leah Paul, 7 Alice Tector, Arlene Kelly, 9 Ava Canning, 10 Cara Murray, 11 Aimee Maguire.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>It’s not raining!<\/p>\n \u2026 but it is cold. And so windy that, at the toss, everybody\u2019s trousers were billowing like billy-ho. So both sides should be very much at home.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Toss: Ireland put Scotland in<\/p>\n Gaby Lewis of Ireland wins the toss. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a bowl,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously overcast and the wicket\u2019s been under cover.\u201d Kathryn Bryce is honest enoiugh to say that she would have bowled first too.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble<\/p>\n Morning everyone and welcome to a rather different World Cup. One in which expanding the tournament means going from ten nations to 12. One in which we never hear a word from a tinpot dictator. One in which every match official makes it through the airport.<\/p>\n Today begins with a small piece of cricket history: the first meeting between Scotland and Ireland in a women\u2019s World Cup. As Raf Nicholson, our resident expert, said in her tournament preview<\/a>, it should be a cracker.<\/p>\n By mid-afternoon, we\u2019ll almost certainly have another piece of history: the first win for either of these sides in a T20 World Cup. Ireland have made it to the finals four times before, playing 17 games and losing the lot. Scotland appeared for the first time in 2024, playing four games and also losing the lot. In sport, as Emma John observed in a wise column<\/a> about the Ben Stokes shemozzle, everyone\u2019s a loser.<\/p>\n Gaby Lewis, Ireland\u2019s captain, says there\u2019s a \u201cmassive rivalry\u201d between the two nations. History is on Ireland\u2019s side: in 15 T20 meetings with Scotland, all in the past eight years, they have won nine and lost six. But form is with Kathryn Bryce and Scotland, who won the last three of those games, including the latest<\/a>, a World Cup qualifier in Nepal.<\/p>\n Both may be eyeng more than just a first victory. They\u2019re in the gentler of the two groups with only one big gun \u2013 their mutual foes, England. Second place is expected to go to New Zealand (who are 4th in the world rankings<\/a>), Sri Lanka (6th) or West Indies (7th), but Ireland (9th) and Scotland (11th) are entitled to dream of an upset. And both of them, when they face that lot, should have the edge in one crucial aspect of the game: reading the weather.<\/p>\n The Manchester climate may have something to say today with showers forecast around the start, though they\u2019re unlikely to prevent a result. All being well, I\u2019ll be back soon with news of the toss and the teams.<\/p>\n