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It is rare a person can claim to have played Test cricket for Ireland. It is even rarer for someone to have been Player of the Match in such a contest. It is only Isobel Joyce who can claim to have done so in a winning cause.
She didn’t even bowl in the first innings or bat in the second innings. She got the honour on the basis of her work in one inning.
That’s special.
That was way back in 2000. Ireland’s women may never play another Test again.
Australia and England play one Test as part of the Ashes and India played two Tests in 2014 – one against England and the other against South Africa. That has been Women’s Test cricket since August 1, 2007.
T20 is the main game, and the WBBL is the main tournament. Joyce wasn’t an automatic start in the league.
It was only when Veda Krishnamurthy – an underperforming player on the worst team in the competition – had to leave to play for India and then get selected by Hobart.
She was not just to be part of the ranks in the absence of an injured Corinne Hall but was expected to lead the ranks.
Hobart had not won a matchup to that point. They won the next one against a Melbourne Renegades team consisting of Amy Satterthwaite and Lea Tahuhu.
They didn’t really neutralize them. They just found a way to go around them and hadn’t found a way past Sophie Molineux and Emma Inglis the day before.
They also didn’t find a way to play a full 40 overs, but under Joyce’s calm leadership – her team found a way to win by four runs.
That didn’t turn them into world-beaters, although they did win an even closer match against the Melbourne Stars. It was just that until then, Hobart hadn’t looked like they were winning a match.
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I was set to thinking about that when Ireland kept getting smacked by New Zealand in similarly brutal style as when South Africa disposed of Bangladesh earlier in the year.
But Bangladesh have won the Women’s Asian Cup since then, one of the country’s biggest cricket achievements. Their improvement is obvious. They were the favorites, and rightly so.
Joyce top-scored for Ireland and even that was not enough to ensure she scored the most boundaries of any batter on her team, but it did mean that Ireland had a total to defend.
The sort of total that Bangladesh found a way to chase in Kuala Lumpar wasn’t too eyepopping but a respectable nonetheless. It’s easy to respect a cricketer who so often gives her team a chance.
Ireland has an interesting team. Along with Bangladesh, they are the most likely qualifiers to the Women’s World T20 later in the year.
The Joyce twins are not the only players who are 34, as there are older players on the team. But sandwiched between them in the batting order is 17-year-old Gaby Lewis.
She’s not the only one born in the 2000s either. Lara Maritz and Cara Murray also of the same age, while Laura Delany heads those who are in their twenties.
An eclectic mix, therefore, and it points to something Cricket Ireland does really well. It emphasizes that cricket is a game for everyone, and especially families.
The Joyces are the best example of that point, but they are not the only one.
Kevin O’Brien, the most recent Player of the Match in an Irish Test match, had a similarly talented brother in Niall O’Brien.
John and Paul Mooney also played in a World Cup together and that attitude extends to families whose last names will never be household mentions around the cricket world, but who help make the household names who they are through their passion.
Who wouldn’t want to see Ireland do well?
Isobel Joyce was the player most responsible for that happening against Bangladesh.
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