As crowd-pleasers go, England and the T20 World Cup couldn't have hoped for better.
Danni Wyatt-Hodge's rock-the-baby dedication to newborn daughter Daisy as she scored a century to carry the host nation to a resounding 87-run win over Sri Lanka in the tournament opener was a moving celebration of sport, camaraderie and motherhood.
After punching the air as she watched the ball race to the boundary to raise her third ton in T20Is, Wyatt-Hodge was lifted off the ground by Nat Sciver-Brunt in a congratulatory hug, then ran back down the pitch and cradled her bat - so many stories wrapped up in those few seconds.
"It was really nice to have her in the middle to celebrate that hundred with her, two mummies," Wyatt-Hodge said of her captain, Sciver-Brunt, who has a one-year-old son, Theo.
"She's just so chill and calm and I got a little bit nervous at the end there with the crowd cheering me on. I was like, 'right, I better do this,' and Nat just said, 'just take a breath and just time it'."
It looked for a moment as though Wyatt-Hodge might not reach the milestone when Sciver-Brunt flayed three fours off Mithali Ayodhya in the 19th over and, in the last, struck Malki Madara for four and six. But a single off the fourth ball gave her partner the strike and, next ball, she was celebrating.
By that point, Wyatt-Hodge said she would have been satisfied walking off 96 not out, but it was earlier that she'd made up her mind to score a century.
"I was on about 90 and I was like, 'I could actually get a hundred now and do it for Daisy," Wyatt-Hodge said. "Once I saw it pierce the gap and go for four, I was really happy. I've been after that third T20 hundred for a few years now so I was chuffed to bits to get out there, at Edgbaston in front of my family as well. It was really, really special."
Wyatt-Hodge hasn't seen baby Daisy since linking up with the England squad for their T20 series against India, which started on May 28, but they were due to be reunited on Saturday in Southampton, where England play their second match of the tournament, against Ireland on Tuesday.
"I'm really looking forward to that," she said. "Feels like I've not seen her for months. It just puts a whole new perspective on things, like, it's all I think about, even in the night as well. It's just incredible and I can't wait for her to come and cheer us on for the rest of the tournament."
Wyatt-Hodge had played just two competitive matches for England this summer before facing Sri Lanka, scoring 29 and 5 in the last two T20Is against India. She missed the first settling back into the squad environment, having sat out the ODI and T20 series with New Zealand as wife Georgie gave birth in May. She went on to score 4 and 3 against Australia and India respectively in the two warm-up games earlier this week.
But against that backdrop, with a new batting partner in Amy Jones and a crowd of 14,865 willing her on, Wyatt-Hodge played as though she didn't have a care in the world.
"It's T20 cricket and it's such a fickle game, especially in the batting, people forget that," she said. "You're playing risky shots all the time, you're going to fail more times than you come off. A good skill of mine is that I do stay level.
"I've got a hundred tonight, but you're only as good as your last game and all that, so I'm just going to try and put it to bed and start on zero again and just go out there with the same intent, be brave."
At the other end, Sciver-Brunt was playing her first international match since the 50-over World Cup semi-final on October 29 having missed the entire England season to this point with a calf injury suffered while playing for her domestic side, The Blaze, on April 29.
She made good on the promise of her half-century in the warm-up against India with an unbeaten 46 off 22 balls, including six fours and a six, to signal her comeback in style.
Not in the picture at this stage but very much part of the narrative was Jones, who shared a 135-run opening stand with Wyatt-Hodge to set England on course.
Jones had opened the batting with Wyatt-Hodge in the two practice games but here she batted at the top for the first time in a T20I since the World Cup in 2020. She was promoted to No. 3 for the India series, with scores of 67, 28 and 2 but here she played with a freedom and aggression that suggested opening suits her just fine as she produced an assured 53 off 38 balls.
As if there weren't enough story lines emerging from this match, Freya Kemp stormed in with four wickets, an achievement in any context but, given what she has been through, to bowl a full allocation in the first match of a home World Cup enhanced her tale even more.
Long and frustrating battles with back stress injuries have meant Kemp's bowling workloads have been carefully managed with the aim of having her ready for this moment. That went perfectly to plan when she took 4 for 22 off four overs as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 132 on the last ball of the match.
England, as a team, have also travelled a difficult path to reach this point - crashing out in the group stage of the last T20 World Cup in 2024, a dire Ashes campaign a few months later, a new head coach, a new captain and plenty of tinkering through the start of this season. But they have been building momentum, as the twin 2-1 series victories against New Zealand and India demonstrated.
The curtain-raiser to the World Cup was a performance from the cast of Wicked The Musical, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in London later this year. And, just like a slick West End show, it was alright on the night for England. While they are sure to face sterner tests through the tournament, this was the sort of premiere that long and successful runs are built on.