England captain Heather Knight knows her team needs to turn their fortunes around quickly as their World Cup hopes hang in the balance; watch England’s must-see match against India live on Sky Sports on Wednesday from 12.30am
Heather Knight acknowledged that England need to improve quickly if they are to retain any hope of retaining the Cricket Women’s World Cup after suffering a third consecutive loss.
The reigning champions suffered a three-wicket loss to South Africa at the Bay Oval on Monday, with the Proteas chasing their target of 236 with four balls to spare.
England have little time to reflect on this latest loss before the 2017 final rematch when they take on India at the same venue on Wednesday and Captain Knight knows her team cannot afford any more slips.
“Obviously we’re going to have to win that game and do well,” Knight said. “We’re going to have to change that very quickly.
“There are going to be some sad faces in that locker room, but we’re going to have to try and get everyone up and ready to go out fighting.
“It’s not for lack of effort, things just haven’t gone our way and we’ve been lacking in certain areas. There are things we can do much better, and we have to believe we can do it in the future.” play.”
A 107-run partnership between Tammy Beaumont (62) and Amy Jones (53) helped England go 235-9 in their 50 overs after being batted first as South Africa won the toss.
Laura Wolvaardt’s 77 got South Africa off to a good start in pursuit of the 236 goal, although England again lamented missed opportunities on the pitch as they went down twice and missed a failed attempt.
Player of the match Marizanne Kapp made a valuable contribution with 32 after taking 5-45 during England’s innings to help the Proteas reach the required score they reached in the final, securing their third consecutive victory in this year’s tournament. . .
It was also the first time South Africa had beaten England at the World Cup in over 20 years and while it was a painful defeat for Knight, she is determined to have a positive mindset going into Wednesday’s must-win game.
“I’ll be honest, it’s pretty painful to lose three close games in a row and I guess sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot with our fielding,” Knight said.
“A hitter like Wolvaardt, you can’t give her as many chances or she’ll make you pay, so obviously we’re pretty gutted with the situation. It’s not for lack of effort or lack of graft.
“Of course we have another very quick game, so we’re going to have to turn things around and continue to believe there’s a slim chance we can get through.”
“I think other games probably have to go our way now, but there’s still a chance, and we’ll continue to believe.”
Former England men’s captain Nasser Hussain speaking to Sky Sports News…
It is very disappointing if you are an England fan or England player. They’ve played three games and lost three, all very close games, and they haven’t played particularly well, if I’m being honest.
They hit well in Hamilton, they pitched well in the last game and they didn’t play well in any of them. There were seven opportunities in Dunedin, four or five today, and three of them went to Laura Wolvaardt. She is a world class player and if you give world class players chances they will hurt you and that is exactly what Wolvaardt did.
I don’t think they are doing any of their disciplines particularly well. With the bat, they made a late change today and left out Lauren Winfield-Hill and changed the batting lineup. With the ball they seem very short; you look at a lot of the World Cup teams, and they’ve been bowling full.
Katherine Brunt in particular, an experienced senior bowler, is playing too little. I talked to Heather Knight after the game and she said, ‘The analyst says you have to throw this pitch short.’ No matter what the analyst says, what is her instinct?
Look at the way Marizanne Kapp bowled. She got five wickets throwing the ball up. England seemed hell-bent on hitting the pitch at midfield and getting pushed. In the field it is like a virus and it spreads throughout the team. They look restless.
The two days we’ve been watching their practice, they’re working really hard, but when it counts, they’re not delivering and for a team that’s world champions, it’s very, very unusual.
They are games where you have to win and now it’s all about his mental attitude and delivery. India are playing well, but England will obviously have good memories. They beat India in that final in 2017 and they can beat anyone if they play the way they can. The problem is that they are not playing as well as they can.
There are some positives: Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones played very well again, Sophie Ecclestone in the last two games has been quite brilliant and didn’t deserve to be on the losing end in any of those games.
