Australia's all-conquering cricket women have been reminded of the difficulty of their quest to successfully defend their T20 World Cup after suffering a rare defeat to unfancied Ireland in their final warm-up match in South Africa.
It may have only been an unofficial match and the Australians were happy to retire key batters while using it as practice - but a team unaccustomed to losing will doubtless have been more than irritated to succumb in unlikely fashion to the Irish at Stellenbosch University on Wednesday.
Meg Lanning's tournament favourites went down by three wickets, succumbing with two balls to spare as Ireland chased down their formidable 5-168 with New Zealand-born Arlene Kelly proving the underdogs' last-over hero as they battled to 7-169.
It was Kelly's handsome driven six off Tahlia McGrath with five balls left that really did the damage, pushing Ireland towards the nine they needed off the final six balls.
Earlier, vice-captain Alyssa Healy, back from the calf injury she suffered in India last month, returned to Australia's batting line-up for their final hit-out, looking good with 62 off 40 balls.
McGrath made 56 off 47 before, like Healey, she was ordered to retire to the pavilion to let others have a chance for one last competitive knock before Saturday's competition opener against New Zealand in Paarl.
Elysse Perry cashed in with an unbeaten, two-runs-a-ball 40 and though Beth Mooney had fallen for a golden duck, bowled by Orla Prendergast on the very first ball of the innings, Australia must have felt their total would be comfortably enough.
But the Irish batters were always up with the run rate as seven of them made double figures in swift time, led by Amy Hunter's 26 from 14 balls, Prendergast's 26 from 15 and Laura Delany's crucial captain's innings of 32 off 28 through the middle overs.
