Maia Bouchier’s sparkling century helped new-look England cruise to a record one-day international target of 282 and a six-wicket win over Ireland at Grace Road.
Bouchier amassed 104 off 95 balls to lay down a marker with Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont retired and Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones, Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Bell also absent for the three-match series.
With Charlie Dean taking the reins in place of Sciver-Brunt, England were listless in the field as Ireland racked up 281 for five, helped by their hosts conceding 33 extras, including 20 wides.
Dean claimed two wickets, as did Issy Wong, although she was bizarrely denied a third in the final over of Ireland’s innings, the ball hitting Rebecca Stokell’s leg stump flush, only for the bails to remain unmoved.
England’s previous highest chase had been 267 against Australia in 2023, but any notion of an upset receded after a 143-run opening stand between Bouchier and Sophia Dunkley, who made 73 off 61 balls.
Bouchier holed out four balls after reaching her ton with 59 still required, but Alice Capsey’s 41 not out got England over the line in the 39th over after Freya Kemp contributed a breezy 36 off 22 deliveries.
The omission of Jones – one of a number of senior players to miss out to test England’s bench strength – meant Capsey took on wicketkeeping duties and she initially flourished, diving in front of slip to take a one-handed catch after Wong had found the outside edge of Alice Tector.
A 136-run stand between captain Gaby Lewis and Amy Hunter checked England, whose bowlers were collectively off the pace, with teenage left-arm spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman leaking 53 off seven overs, while their ground fielding was lacklustre.
Lewis top-scored with 69 before being beaten on the inside edge by Wong and Hunter made 62 before Dean breached her defences, while Stokell’s 54 not out added some late impetus to the innings.
Bouchier tucked her third ball for four through the covers but the opener was more watchful initially, taking just six off 19 deliveries before belting four successive fours off the expensive Jane Maguire.
Dunkley, opening the batting for just the sixth time in 45 ODI innings, showed off her trademark power through the offside, driving anything that was overpitched and cutting away what was too short.
Dunkley was first to fifty off 40 balls although she departed in tame fashion after offering a return catch to leg-spinner Cara Murray, who castled Jodi Grewcock in her third ODI through the gate for nine.
Capsey, though, was a useful foil for Bouchier, who moved to a second ODI hundred with her 11th and final four before belting Arlene Kelly to long-on in the next over.
Capsey got into her groove with a mighty six after Murray dropped short while Kemp was into her work, emulating Bouchier, with four fours in a row, this time off Arlene Kelly.
With five needed for victory, Kemp looked to finish the match with a flourish but only handed Murray a third wicket, unable to clear Tector on the boundary.
Capsey, though, made sure of a comprehensive victory in the following over after Tector’s misfield as England drew first blood, with the series continuing at Derby on Thursday.
