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Tanya Oxtoby, the manager of Northern Ireland, describes Laura Rafferty as “integral” to their continued growth as she wraps up 50 caps.

Rafferty, a Rangers defender, will be eligible for the milestone if she plays on Friday night in Croatia’s opening Euro 2025 play-off game.

And Oxtoby heaped praise on the 28-year-old, who has also captained her country on numerous occasions recently.

“I always say about Raff, you know exactly what you’re going to get, she’s fully committed, gives 100% to the group and as a coach that is all you can ask for”, Oxtoby told BBC Sport NI.

The Northern Ireland squad has undergone a number of changes since Bosnia-Herzegovina’s final Euro 2025 qualifier in July.

Former captain Marissa Callaghan and Glentoran’s Demi Vance are two high-profile omissions, with the likes of Joely Andrews, Nadene Caldwell, Caragh Hamilton and Kerry Beattie ruled out through injury.

Oxtoby reiterated that “the door will remain open” for their return despite the numerous adjustments, but believes the squad has enough experience and quality to overcome Croatia.

“Those conversations]on the absences] will remain private between myself and the players as I think that is respectful, they have been given feedback like every player does”, Oxtoby explained.

“We feel we have a great squad composition, we have a lot of tactically flexibility, so I feel like we’re in a really good place”.

After impressing for her club, Nat Johnson, Nottingham Forest defender, was pleased to join Oxtoby’s first squad since making her debut at Euro 2022.

“She’s fitted in really with this group, brought a lot of positive energy and really wants to be a sponge”, the manager added.

Oxtoby also believes that new captain Simone Magill “epitomises” qualities she wants in an on-field leader.

Marissa Callaghan, who left the position in May, took over as Northern Ireland’s captain on Monday.

Simone epitomizes the qualities and traits we sought in our leadership team, according to Simone.

No matter who wears the armband, we have a great group of leaders in this group and we’re continuing to develop them, according to the players, who were a part of a really diligent process.

Northern Ireland will face the winner of the tie between Norway and Albania in Switzerland’s European Championships if they advance past Croatia.

Due to the absence of the Women’s Premiership players, the play-off will take place in December, which opens a new ambiguous window for Oxtoby.

The manager is happy to have a season window open for players from Northern Ireland and England and Scotland and for those who have just finished their studies.

“We’re going to be back in that difficult position in the next window, but we’re in a good position in this one.”

Coco Gauff, the fourth seed, defeated Paula Badosa in the first China Open final after going set and break.

The 20-year-old American dug deep to come through 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Spaniard Badosa served with a 4-3 lead in the second set, which was a 19th-ranked player but a former world number two.

However, Gauff eventually won the game in two hours and 21 minutes by breaking and rattled off the next four games to set up a decider.

Badosa, who was in the top 140th place in the world rankings in May, had a strong start to the semi-finals in Beijing, winning over Jessica Pegula, the second seed, and Jessica Pegula, the finalist.

And she took advantage of Gauff’s inconsistencies, particularly on her serve which produced 11 double faults, to win the opening set and break in the first game of the second.

After resuming her relationship with Brad Gilbert last month and avoiding contention for the US Open in the fourth round, Gauff is now working with new coach Matt Daly.

The American gained momentum as Badosa recovered with her composure after she dropped her first set of the week after saving four break points to avoid falling to 4-1 in the second set.

In the final match, Gauff broke three times to claim the victory as she competes for Auckland’s only title of the year so far in January.

Fifth T20, Lord’s

England 155-7 (20 overs): Knight 46* (31), Jonas 4-22

class=”ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3″>New Zealand 135-8 (20 overs): A Kerr 43 (36), Bell 3-20

England won by 20 runs, win series 5-0

England cruised to a comfortable 20-run victory over New Zealand at Lord’s to end their home-grown run of unbeaten.

The White Ferns’ batting woes, which have plagued them throughout the series, continued as they were only able to manage 135-8, set 156 to win.

With a strong all-round performance, fellow seamer Freya Kemp and spinner Charlie Dean took two wickets each in a strong performance.

The win secures a 5-0 clean sweep for England, and was preceded by a dominant 3-0 one-day international series win.

Earlier, the visitors put in their best performance in the field, reducing England to 61-4, but could not capitalise as captain Heather Knight’s unbeaten 46 took the game away.

With 4-22, Fran Jonas led with the wicket of Danni Wyatt from the opening ball of the match, and Nathan Sciver-Brunt was the only one to score for 16 while Eden Carson, a fellow spinner, recorded a 30-23 total.

However, the regular wickets, especially the few overs of pace, were inconsistent, which eased England’s pressure and kept them from posting what would have been their T20 series highest score.

Amelia Kerr’s 43 was the highest score, followed by the well-known middle-order stumble, which resulted in five wickets falling for just 27 runs. The batting line-up was so low on confidence.

England have won 13 games in a summer away from home for the first time since 2002, surpassing their previous record of 12 with a total white-ball victory over Pakistan and New Zealand.

With England looking confident ahead of the World Cup and having a washout against Pakistan in May, it is fair to say that neither series has been a challenge.

It speaks volumes that even after New Zealand’s most competitive year, it still came out in a complete defeat.

They did manage to somewhat silence the healthy Lord’s crowd, including a sold-out pavilion, when Wyatt holed out to mid-wicket first ball and several soft dismissals fell to the spinners.

Maia Bouchier chipped to mid-on for 13, Sciver-Brunt was victim to a sensational one-handed caught and bowled, Alice Capsey was tamely stumped for 25 and Amy Jones was caught at long-on.

Before a flurry of boundaries in the final two overs saw the score drop past 150, Knight remained as England’s rock, surviving the pressure with smart running between the wickets.

England chased down New Zealand’s previous highest score in the series with four wickets to spare, demonstrating the breadth of the task at hand.

In contrast to England, who had Dean putting in a valuable 24 from 19 balls from the eighth, Brooke Halliday was the only batter to add 20 in support of Amelia Kerr.

England captain Heather Knight on BBC Two: “Really pleased. We discussed whether we wanted to finish this summer strong.

” We’ve talked about nailing teams when they’re on top and we’ve done that. I’m a very happy captain. “

Frankie Mackay, a former New Zealand all-rounder, said on BBC Two: “I think this England side’s cricket is brilliant right now.