By Milly McEvoy, Sportsbeat

England U19 Women’s captain Abi Norgrove is looking to the positives after rain saw her side’s opening World Cup match abandoned due to rain.

Having been put into bat by Ireland, England made 144 for seven from their 20 overs in Johor, Malaysia as Jemima Spence top-scored with 37.

Ireland began their chase strongly, but two run outs saw them reach 28 for two after 3.5 overs when rain stopped play and eventually saw the match called off.

“Obviously it was a bit frustrating with the way the rain affected the game,” Oxford native Norgrove said.

“But I think we have just got to carry on as we mean to go on really and look forward to the next games.

“It was a good track, but I think we were slightly under par. We all looked to take the positive option, it was a good deck and we had to trust that and just bat in a positive way.

“We are the only team who hasn’t actually played a game so it was just about getting into the run of it and getting into game situations and I think that will really help us in the games that we play.”

England’s two warm-up matches – a comfortable win over Samoa and a super over loss to Bangladesh – marked the only games they have played as a squad.

Norgrove, who celebrated her 19th birthday the day before the opening match, was one of 10 debutants for England.

Davina Perrin was the only returning player from the inaugural edition of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup where England lost to India in the final.

Perrin set the tone with 26 at the top of the order, with Spence, Charlotte Stubbs and Charlotte Lambert also posting scores above 20.

In response, Ireland were stunted by run outs but Rebecca Lowe’s 16 from 11 put them in a decent position before the heavens opened calling an end to proceedings.

England will next face Pakistan on Monday as they look to get their first win on the board.

Norgrove added: “We will start the next game as a fresh game, we’ll take that positive intent that we are looking to play with bat, ball and in the field and carry on the momentum.

“We are going to treat them like any other opposition. We came here to win every game so I think it will be about carrying on that positive intent throughout.

“We had a lot of cap presentations this morning which were very emotional, but it was great to see the girls making their U19 debut.

“We came out here to look to win the whole competition, that is the positive outlook that we are trying but we are just going to take each game as it comes, and play in an attacking way.”