England Women vs Ireland Leicester ODI 2026: Match Guide

The england women ireland leicester odi 2026 fixture opens the three-match Metro Bank series on Tuesday 1 September 2026 at Grace Road, with a 1pm BST start as a day/night match. It is the first of three fifty-over internationals in six days, and it is England Women's only appearance in Leicestershire this year. A weekday afternoon start means the closing overs run into the evening under lights, and a first-of-September evening in the East Midlands is a good deal cooler than the middle of the day suggests.

Detail	Information
Fixture	England Women v Ireland Women, 1st Metro Bank ODI
Date	Tuesday 1 September 2026
Start	1pm BST, day/night
Ground	Grace Road, Leicester
County	Leicestershire
Format	50 overs per side
Competition context	2025-2029 ICC Women's Championship
Live TV	Sky Sports Cricket (confirm listing in match week)

Everything in that table comes from the published international schedule. Squads, the toss, gate times and the weather are not settled this far out, and anything on this page described as "usual practice" is exactly that — check the county's own listing before you travel.

Grace Road, and why it has this match

Leicestershire's headquarters sits about two miles south of the city centre, off the Aylestone Road corridor, in a residential quarter that gives no clue from the main road that there is a first-class ground behind it. It has been the county's home since the 1870s, with an interruption in the first half of the twentieth century when Leicestershire played at a ground on Aylestone Road itself before returning after the Second World War. The name comes from the street, not from W. G. Grace, a coincidence that gets pointed out at the ground roughly once an hour.

It is a working county ground rather than an international stadium — a long low pavilion, banked seating and grass on the far side, floodlights, and a capacity in the low thousands rather than the tens of thousands. That is precisely why it has an England fixture. The ECB's approach to women's bilateral internationals has been to put them where a crowd of three or four thousand fills the ground and generates an atmosphere, rather than into a Test arena where the same number disappears. A sold-out Grace Road on a Tuesday evening is a considerably better watch than a quarter-full Edgbaston.

The two ends are the Pavilion End and the Bennett End. The square has a long-standing reputation for being one of the more bowler-friendly surfaces on the county circuit — Leicestershire's seamers have made careers out of it — and the ground has never been a place where 300 gets scored casually. In September, with heavier evening air and dew coming down in the last hour, that reputation tends to be reinforced rather than contradicted. Our English cricket grounds guide puts Grace Road in the wider venue hierarchy.

Getting to Grace Road

Route	Detail
Rail	Leicester station (London Road) is on the Midland Main Line, direct from London St Pancras, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. Around 25-35 minutes on foot to the ground, or a short bus or taxi ride.
Bus	City services run out along Aylestone Road and Saffron Lane; check evening frequencies, which drop after the commuter peak.
Car	The ground is reached from the A426 Aylestone Road. On-site car parking is limited and normally reserved or pre-booked on international days.
On foot	The Grand Union Canal towpath and the Aylestone Meadows give a pleasant walking route south from the centre if you have the time.

Two practical points. The first is that Leicester City's King Power Stadium sits on the same side of the city, and if there is a football fixture on the same evening the roads around Aylestone Road and Filbert Way get considerably worse than they otherwise would — worth a check when you plan the journey. The second is that residential streets around Grace Road are exactly the kind that operate permit schemes and get unhappy about match-day parking. If you drive, arrive early and expect to walk in from further out than you would like.

Coming back is the part people underestimate. A day/night ODI at Leicester finishing at half past eight or later leaves you walking back into the city in the dark for the late Midland Main Line services. Check the last train south or north before the innings break, not after it.

Where England stand going into the opener

England Women have had a heavy summer with two very public disappointments in it. Nat Sciver-Brunt's side beat New Zealand 2-1 in a T20 series and India 2-1 in another, drew the New Zealand ODI series 1-1 with one match washed out, then lost the ICC Women's T20 World Cup final to Australia at Lord's on 5 July, Australia chasing 151 with 17 balls left. The week after that, India won the first women's Test played at Lord's by 270 runs.

The relevant thing for Leicester is that England have played very little fifty-over cricket in 2026. Three ODIs in May, one of them abandoned, is the whole of it — and the last one ended in a 17-run DLS defeat in Cardiff. This series is the side's first sustained block of one-day cricket in a year that has otherwise been about the short format, and the opener at Grace Road is where whatever combination the selectors have settled on gets its first look.

Ireland at Grace Road

Ireland arrive with a captain in Gaby Lewis who has been the constant in the side's rise, and with a genuine recent result over England to point at. In the 2024 ODI series in Ireland, England won 2-1 but lost the final match by three wickets off the last ball, Aimee Maguire taking a maiden five-wicket haul. The middle game of that same series had gone the other way as emphatically as it is possible for a cricket match to go — England won it by 275 runs, their biggest ODI victory by a runs margin, Tammy Beaumont making 150 not out and Ireland bowled out for 45.

The two teams have also already met this summer, at the T20 World Cup on 16 June, where England won by four wickets with fifteen balls in hand after Ireland made 118 for 9. That is covered separately in our piece on the World Cup group meeting.

Over fifty overs the challenge is different. Ireland's bowling has been the stronger half of their game for years, and a Grace Road surface with early seam movement is the sort of pitch that lets a developing attack keep a strong batting side honest. The difficulty comes in the second half of the innings, where England's depth tells and Ireland's has historically not. If Ireland are going to take a match in this series, a low-scoring evening at Leicester is a plausible place for it.

Neither squad will be confirmed far ahead. September selection for both nations tends to land a fortnight or so out, and the domestic season overlapping into late August moves availability late.

Tickets

Tickets for this match come from Leicestershire County Cricket Club, through the county's own box office rather than the ECB. The pattern for a women's international at a county headquarters is well established:

• Advance prices are lower than gate prices, and the difference is usually a few pounds per adult.
• Under-16 entry is priced low, and family bundles are common. Some counties admit accompanied juniors free with a paying adult.
• Members of the host county often receive complimentary or discounted entry, but this is set county by county rather than nationally, so check Leicestershire's own terms rather than assuming.
• Accessible seating, wheelchair spaces and companion tickets are handled by the box office directly rather than through the general online sale. Contact the club early.
• Hospitality in the pavilion suites is sold separately from ground admission.

Prices are not quoted here because they change with the county, the sale phase and the date. The buying process, ballots and priority windows are set out in the England Women's 2026 ticket guide, and there is a format-specific breakdown in our women's ODI ticket guide.

Following the match

Sky Sports Cricket has carried England Women's home internationals throughout the current ECB rights agreement, which runs to the end of 2028 and covers home men's and women's fixtures. BBC holds audio rights across England's home Tests, ODIs and T20Is, which puts commentary on Test Match Special and BBC Sounds, and carries highlights of England internationals on television. Live free-to-air television coverage in this country is limited to The Hundred.

Treat that as the pattern rather than a confirmed listing for 1 September — broadcast schedules for individual matches appear closer to the date, and radio allocation in a busy September can shift. The full picture is in our guide to watching England Women in the UK.

Making a day of it in Leicester

A 1pm start on a Tuesday is awkward for a full day off and ideal for a half day. If you are coming in from Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham or Peterborough, the morning is free and the city is compact enough to see something before you head south to the ground.

The obvious candidates are the King Richard III Visitor Centre and Leicester Cathedral in the old town, the Jewry Wall Roman site, the New Walk Museum along the Georgian promenade that runs from the city centre towards the ground, and the Golden Mile on Belgrave Road for food. The National Space Centre is further out but a proper half-day if you have children with you. Leicester Market is a short walk from the station.

For the ground itself, bring layers and something waterproof. Grace Road is open to the weather on the far side and September evenings in the East Midlands turn quickly once the sun drops behind the pavilion. Bag rules at ECB internationals are stricter than at county fixtures — expect a size limit and a search on the gate, and expect alcohol brought from outside to be refused. Leicestershire publishes its own ground regulations, and those are the ones that apply.

Where this fits in the series

Leicester is the first of three. Derby follows on Thursday 3 September, also at 1pm and also under lights, and the series closes at New Road on Sunday 6 September with an 11am start. Full detail on each is in our guides to the second match at Derby and the series finale at Worcester, with the whole schedule and what it counts towards on the series page.

Winning the opener puts England in a position to take the series at Derby. Losing it makes Grace Road the point at which a routine September assignment stops being routine. All three matches carry ICC Women's Championship points towards qualification for the 2029 Women's Cricket World Cup, which is why a bilateral against Ireland has a weight it would not have carried a decade ago.

FAQ

When is the England Women v Ireland ODI at Leicester?

Tuesday 1 September 2026, starting at 1pm BST at Grace Road. It is the first of three Metro Bank ODIs in the series.

Is the Leicester ODI a day/night match?

Yes. The 1pm start means the second innings runs into the evening under floodlights, with a finish expected around 8pm or later if the match goes the distance.

How far is Grace Road from Leicester railway station?

Roughly 25-35 minutes on foot, heading south from London Road station towards Aylestone Road. Buses run along the corridor and a taxi takes about ten minutes outside peak traffic.

Where do I buy tickets for the England Women's ODI at Grace Road?

Through Leicestershire County Cricket Club's box office. Advance tickets are cheaper than gate prices, junior tickets are low-cost, and accessible seating is arranged directly with the club rather than through general online sale.

Is there parking at Grace Road for an international?

On-site parking is limited and usually pre-booked or reserved on international days. Surrounding residential streets operate permit restrictions, so public transport is the more straightforward option.

Does the England v Ireland ODI at Leicester count for anything?

Yes. It carries points in the 2025-2029 ICC Women's Championship, the competition that decides qualification for the 2029 Women's Cricket World Cup.

The short version

The england women ireland leicester odi 2026 match is a 1pm day/night fixture at Grace Road on Tuesday 1 September, the first of three ODIs against Ireland and England Women's last home series of the year. Tickets come from Leicestershire, the ground is a walk or a short bus from Leicester station, Sky Sports Cricket is the likely live home and Test Match Special the radio option. For more on how the women's game in this country reached full professionalism, see England women's cricket history and the guide to the women's domestic structure; for the rest of the season, the England Women's 2026 fixture list, the England cricket hub and the wider guide to cricket in England all pick up the thread.