Ireland finding their feet on the world stage

It was a Christmas like no other for Clare Shillington. The poverty on the streets of Delhi made it different. So too did the fact that she was about to make her ICC World Cup debut, aged 16.

Belfast-born Shillington played schools’ cricket since the age of eight. Her brother pushed her to make the boys’ team, and here she was, wearing green in front of 10,000 fans at the Nehru Stadium, Gurgaon.

Boarding school transformed Shillington into a self-sufficient, capable teenager, and when facing Pakistan — the Indians in the crowd were cheering on the Irish — captain Mary Grealey took her aside. ‘Clare, the Khan sisters will hit the ball for a country mile, always straight down the ground. Go stand out on the boundary. They’re going to hit it up, and you’re going to catch it,’ she said.