Tight-knit England Look To Defend WC Title

Christchurch, April 2: England pride themselves on being a tight-knit group and they have had to be to set up the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 final against Australia on Sunday. Even when they sat on zero points after three consecutive defeats, England did not doubt each other or themselves and, after wrestling back some positive momentum, they are on the verge of defending their title.

England will take on old rivals Australia and it will require all their team spirit to defeat a side that they have not beaten in ODIs since 2017.

Their turnaround from a stuttering start, which featured a defeat to Australia in their opening game, has been led by England’s bowlers, which has the perfect balance of youth and experience.

Seamers Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole are the only double World Cup winners in the tournament, having won in 2009 and 2017. The duo have taken 10 wickets between them in the 2022 tournament, with Shrubsole passing 100 ODI wickets in the win over India, while Brunt will move to 35 World Cup games on Sunday, the fourth-most.

But it is spin that has dominated the wicket-taking for England and the 22-year-old Sophie Ecclestone has earned a tournament-high 20 wickets, with Charlie Dean, who is a year younger, sitting in joint-fifth positions with 11 scalps. And Ecclestone credits her teammates with helping keep her mood up, particularly as she recovered from her worst ODI bowling figures of zero for 77 in the opener.

“I’ve got to play with a smile on my face. That’s when I bowl my best, when I don’t take things too seriously. When I’m down or not had a good over, someone needs to come up to me and make me laugh and I will be much better then. I think Katherine’s the same, once you get a smile and she’s not angry or she’s not frustrated she’s back to her best,” Ecclestone said. While England fell just 12 runs short in their chase of Australia’s 310 in the opening game, partnerships have often been hard to come by for the 2017 champions. Danni Wyatt’s 116-run stand with Sophia Dunkley for the fifth wicket in their semi-final clash against South Africa was England’s highest of the tournament and came as they rebuilt from 126 for four. Nat Sciver is England’s most successful batter with 288 runs to sit in the eighth place on the run-scoring charts, with Dunkley two places and 19 runs behind her. Wyatt has undergone a resurgence since being promoted from No.7 to open the innings in place of Lauren Winfield-Hill. The right-hander fell cheaply against South Africa and India in the group stages but came good against Pakistan, before scoring a maiden World Cup century to take England into the final. It is a recurring theme for England to show faith in players who have delivered before, with Brunt’s wealth of experience came to the fore against Pakistan as she took 3 for 17. When England lost to South Africa, their third defeat in a row, other teams’ results then became important to their progression. But as captain Heather Knight led the rebuild, the focus was always internal. “It was just about remaining as calm as we could, not panicking, realising that a lot of things that were going wrong were in our control. Little things like fielding, bowling extras, poor shot selection and they were things that we could change pretty quickly,” Knight said. “I remember we had a recovery session in Mount Maunganui the morning after we’d lost against South Africa and had obviously lost a third one, and just trying to keep everyone happy and everyone positive. I think the girls did that brilliantly. Sometimes, you have to force it a little bit when we’re in a bad situation. “But the fact that we’re very close as a group, I’m really proud actually of the fact that we’ve really stuck together. We’ve had some tough times on this trip so the fact that we’ve stayed together speaks volumes about this group and the character that we’ve got to turn it around and be in a position where we’ve got a chance to go and win it tomorrow.”