Cool Irish heads in last ball drama

Despite nursing a slightly fragile head, Isobel Joyce managed to send one final blog from Thailand after Ireland beat Bangladesh for the first time, off the very last ball of the game, to win the final of the WWT20Q. For more details on the dramatic game click here. Ireland's next challenge is the WWT20 in April, where they and Bangladesh join the top eight nations for the World T20 crown. They can't wait...

Winning the final of a world event is a dream come true. Winning is always great but winning the way we did yesterday is a step above, especially after the drama on the last ball.

Izzy Joyce with the WWT20Q trophy

Before any tournament, the captains, coaches and managers of all the teams are gathered together and the various regulations and logistics are gone over. It can get a little tedious going to these meetings as they rarely differ but yesterday afternoon I was extremely glad I had paid attention.

In the meeting, they mentioned mankading (running out a batsman backing up). The bowler cannot have completed their action before taking the bails at the non-strikers end. Lo and behold, the last ball of the game, Salma Khatun decides to mankad Laura Delany - cue wild celebrations from the Bangladeshis. They didn't seem to realise either that we still had another batter to come or that they were yet to bowl the last ball.

As soon as this happened I jumped to my feet, ran to the boundary and told Laura to stay put. Khatun had completed her action before attempting to run Laura out. The umpires conferred and eventually retracted their decision. The stage was set for Lucy O'Reilly to pull the next ball over midwicket for the one run we needed and as soon as she made contact I was sprinting onto the pitch.

I don't think I've ever been as happy to win a match in my life, lifting the trophy was one of the best feelings I've ever had.

Isobel Joyce
06/XII/15