A day after Charlotte Edwards named her squad for this year's home T20 World Cup, she was at Southampton as Maia Bouchier scored 78 to set up what turned out to be a narrow One Day Cup win for Hampshire. On the other side, Danni Wyatt-Hodge scored a century for Surrey to take them within 14 runs of their target.
Wyatt-Hodge went on to become the T20 World Cup's leading batter. Bouchier, not in the squad, went on to score two rapid centuries and another fifty in the domestic one-day competition, where she is currently the sixth-highest run-scorer and striking at 102.74.
The last time Bouchier scored an ODI century, against New Zealand at Worcester in 2024, she was at the height of her international career so far. She had closed out the 2023 summer with 95 against Sri Lanka in Leicester, then played 10 ODI innings and 19 T20Is the following year, capping her run off with a maiden Test hundred in South Africa.
But it all went wrong for Bouchier on the Ashes tour of Australia at the start of 2025. She scored just 26 runs across three ODI innings, a duck and 13 in two T20Is, and 2 and 1 in the one-off Test. Since then, she has been named for England just nine times across all three formats, missing selection for last year's 50-over World Cup as well as this year's T20 version.
So with the chance to avenge their winless campaign against Australia at home next summer, Edwards has thrown down the challenge for a new-look England squad to take their opportunities in three ODIs series with Ireland. As she showed on a happy return to Leicester on Tuesday, where she scored a 91-ball century to lead England to a record-breaking victory, Bouchier has taken that challenge to heart.
"She wants me to be opening in the 50-over stuff and, going forward there's a lot of opportunity next year, which is really exciting," Bouchier said. "If I can just put my name out there and score those big runs, I hope that will take care of itself."
Intensifying the focus on her 50-over game, Bouchier believes that if she keeps getting that right, good things can come in the shorter format too. And she has tried not to dwell on how she fell out of favour at international level.
"It's quite a difficult thing to think about," she said after her 104 against Ireland had helped England to a thumping six-wicket win with 71 balls to spare. "The way I've been thinking about it is to try and take the opportunity.
"The 50-over cricket, I've really worked on in the background and tried to just make sure I've been around and available and getting those runs in the domestic season. Obviously gutting that I missed out on the World Cup, but I think it was a really good way to play some more cricket and take the positives instead of the negatives."
Since Edwards took over as coach following the Ashes, she has tried a range of combinations at the top of the order. Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones had success opening against West Indies in her first series in charge and she stuck with them through England's run to the World Cup semi-finals.
She tinkered through this summer's home series against New Zealand with Bouchier scoring 59 from No. 4 in the opening match. Now, with Beaumont retired and Jones rested against Ireland, Bouchier can show off her hard work at the top of the order.
"One thing I've focused on is more about my breathing and how I go about every ball and staying really present, which is something that's been consistent throughout this year," she said. "I think that's been really helpful for me. Having good conversations behind the scenes with the coaches and just being really open and honest about how I'm feeling, that's been really helpful as well.
"Obviously I want to be thinking about T20s as well, but the basics and foundation of my game is 50-over cricket and I think if I can adapt to T20, that's even better. That's where I've been working, on the basics of my process and how I play the ball in 50-over cricket."
Opening partner Sophia Dunkley was the aggressor early on in their 143-run partnership against Ireland, which set the foundation for England's win. Dunkley reached fifty first, off 40 balls, Bouchier off 63. But when Dunkley fell for a 61-ball 73 via a return catch to legspinner Cara Murray, Bouchier added 21 off 13 to dominate a 30-run partnership with Jodi Grewcock, then 27 off 25 in a 50-run stand with Alice Capsey.
In contrast with her previous ODI century, in which she almost ran out of runs to chase after dominating England's pursuit of a victory target of 142, Bouchier was in complete control of her timings this time around. Back then, England had needed five runs from 27 overs, leading Nat Sciver-Brunt to block four balls in a row to put her batting partner back on strike in the next over.
"At 90 you start thinking: 'Do I need to do anything different?' That's what's been the most challenging for me, but also the most rewarding is getting through that period of thinking, 'okay, can I just still be positive? I don't need to do anything different. I've been playing the ball,'" Bouchier said. "And so not to change anything, I think that's got me to the hundreds, both today and domestically as well."
England and Ireland meet again in Derby on Thursday and, with Worcester set to host the final game, Bouchier will be hoping for another happy return.