ALICE TECTOR fulfilled a childhood dream when she made her debut for Ireland against Sri Lanka last month at the age of 16, and she is back in Belfast hoping for a chance to ruffle England’s feathers in another ICC Women’s Championship series.

The Girls in Green face a stiff challenge against one of the world’s best ODI teams but buoyed by the historic 2-1 victory over Sri Lanka - their first against an ICC Full Member - the home team will take the field today (SAT) hopeful of another upset.  

“We’re really excited for the games against England,” Tector said. “They’ve got some new players coming into their squad but that doesn’t change anything for us. We’re up for the challenge and hopefully we can come away with the series win.”

Tector, the youngest of four siblings, has been hailed as possibly the best cricketer in her family despite one brother Harry being an established batsman in the Ireland middle order, and another, Tim, tearing up trees in Dublin club cricket this season.

Alice can be handy with the bat herself but she is in the team as a fast-medium seam bowler, with plenty of potential to develop into a mainstay of the Ireland set-up.

“I’ve always wanted to do this since I was really young - to bowl at the best in the world - so finally being there and standing at the top of my run against Sri Lanka was pretty special,” she said.

“Being presented with my cap by Gaby was amazing too. We are very close, and our families have always been close, so that was a special moment too.”

Lewis will captain Ireland in the series against England in the continued absence of Laura Delany, who picked up what is  proving to be a long-term injury against Sri Lanka.

After notching their first points in the World Championship against Sri Lanka, the three matches against England at the same Stormont venue are likely to prove a much harder proposition for Ireland and even one win would be a mighty achievement.

Today’s clash and the following games are on Monday and Wednesday, should give coach Ed Joyce a good pointer as to how far his young squad have progressed this year, though.