Louse Little edged the first ball of the 15^th over to the third man boundary and that was enough to put Ireland one run ahead on DLS. The rain was falling and the umpires waved on the covers and with the teams unable to return, Ireland had their first T20I victory over West Indies.

Victory for West Indies would have given them the Tri-series title but now it is set to down to run rate if West Indies and Ireland can both complete second victories over Pakistan in their remaining games on Wednesday and Thursday.

While Little may have hit the winning run, her captain on the day was the match-winner. Ireland were 99-5 when the rain arrived – in reply to West Indies 141-8 – and Orla Prendergast, still not out at the other end, had scored 71 of them.

Attacking the bowling from the start, despite coming to the middle at 3-2, she hit eight fours in her first 40 runs and then, mainly due to not seeing a lot of the strike, spent 13 balls over her next eight runs.

 But Prendergast, on her 24th birthday, brought up her 12^th T20I half century with a pull to long leg and took another 12 off the over to get Ireland back on track. In all, Prendergast faced 46 balls with 11 fours and a six.  The next best score was Rebecca Stokell’s 12.

,With Amy Hunter not allowed to play two days in row, as she recovers from injury, Christina Coulter-Reilly took the gloves, but was, surprisingly, not asked to open the batting, which she has done so often at Castle Avenue. Instead. it was Arlene Kelly who was sent out with Alana Dalzell and neither of them lasted the first over. Dalzell drove her first ball straight to cover and Kelly mistimed her third to mid-off.

The turning point of the game was the simple drop at mid-on when Prendergast was on 25 so Ireland were able to survive the loss of Stokell, who gloved a sweep shot to the keeper, Leah Paul to an ambitious ramp shot and Alice Tector to a risky second run, beaten by a superb throw from Jahzara Claxton.

Although Prendergast lost the toss, she was undoubtedly happy to be bowling first on a pitch that was still drying out from earlier rain and opening bowlers Ava Canning and Dalzell took full advantage to reduce West indies to 33 for three. Indeed, Canning bowled all four overs straight up to finish with an impressive two for 11, including the huge wicket of West Indies captain Hayley Matthews for just one,

Lara McBride, who replaced Aimee Maguire, was in the action before she had a chance to bowl, her throw to Coulter-Reilly good enough to run out Claxton and then, during the drinks break, Stafanie Taylor was forced to retire hurt – a huge boost for Ireland.

It was not immediately evident as Shermaine Campbell and Jannillea Glasgow almost doubled the score with their fifth wicket stand of 44. But Ireland, to their credit, never let the innings career out of control and Prendergast came back to take a couple of wickets, although unlike Sunday she did concede 12 runs in the last over.

As for the Ireland catching, two straightforward chances were put down, by the usual suspects, but there were enough good ones for them to be overlooked, Dalzell, Kelly, Tector and, in particular, Leah Paul all holding on. Not forgetting two by Coulter-Reilly.

Ireland’s final match is back at Clontarf on Thursday.