Laura Delany is expecting Ireland to be more competitive in the T20 series against Pakistan that starts on Saturday after losing by five wickets in Lahore yesterday to suffer a 3-0 sweep in the ICC Championship.

The Girls in Green have improved in each ODI this week and looked set for a big total yesterday  as opener Leah Paul’s top score of 65, and runs from Gaby Lewis (39) and Amy Hunter (41) gave the visitors a solid base of 149-1.

But when Hunter and Leah fell in successive overs the innings tailed away to 225 all out and Pakistan secured victory with 17 balls to spare, despite losing prolific opener Sidra Ameen for the first time in the series, lbw to Jane Maguire for 10.

“We batted well at times, and likewise with the bowling, we took more wickets, but we need to be tighter in the field,” skipper Delany said. “We let too many balls go either side of us and that’s something we need to look at.

“These three games have been a great learning curve for us, in conditions that we’re not used to, and we’re looking forward to the T20 series and hopefully it’ll be more competitive.”