Cape Town, Feb 22 (IANS) Star all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt believes England’s dominating 114-run defeat of Pakistan was an opportunity to show everyone what they’re about as a team as her side twice made history in their final group game of the ongoing ICC Womens T20 World Cup 2023.
England’s mammoth win against Pakistan on Tuesday night was the biggest margin of victory in ICC Women’s T20 World Cups, while their total of 213 for five was the first time a women’s team had passed 200 in the tournament.
Sciver-Brunt played a crucial knock of 81 not out off 40 balls, anchoring a fifty partnership with Danni Wyatt before putting on 100 for the fifth wicket with Amy Jones.
With the ball, there were welcome wickets for Katherine Sciver-Brunt (2/14) and Charlie Dean (2/28), as Pakistan’s top order failed to fire.
“Previously in the tournament, I think we’ve been building up to a performance like this. We targeted this game as a chance to show everyone as a team what we’re about and I guess it being the last game in our group as well, it was a free chance to show off a bit,” said Sciver-Brunt after the game.
“And do the things that we do really well as a group,” she added.
England were as strong in the field as they were with bat and ball, which allowed them to soar to a commanding victory, meaning they go into the second semi-final on Friday on the back of four wins from four.
The records broken at Newlands will also keep head coach John Lewis, who has enjoyed an unbeaten start to life in the role, happy.
“Records are something that Lewy has definitely asked us to push. He is finding random records that we have beaten, not the standard ones. But it is important for us to be pushing ourselves and pushing our standards higher and higher, ” said Sciver-Brunt.
“If we can do that consistently, the world is ours,” she added.
Meanwhile, Nida Dar, who stood in as captain for the injured Bismah Maroof, admitted that Pakistan’s batting was light without the skipper and middle-order batter Ayesha Naseem.
Six Pakistan batters made scores under 10, with Tuba Hassan, the side’s top scorer as she crashed 28 runs from 20 balls in the closing stages.
“There is disappointment for the team here and we were lacking from not having Bismah Maroof and Ayesha Naseem as two powerhouse batters and we know we are lacking with our batting, we didn’t have that strength in our batting line-up,” said Nida.
“We have to learn from these kinds of matches, we have definitely learnt some positives from the matches, we played two very good matches here, so we will take positives from that,” she added.
While Nida had an expensive day with ball in hand, going for 47 runs from her four overs, she took her 126th T20I wicket to move past Anisa Mohammed of the West Indies to become the highest wicket-taker in the format.
“It’s a milestone for me to be the top wicket-taker in T20s. But it is not the milestone I am aiming for, I want to do the best for my team and that will be my goal,” the veteran all-rounder said.
–IANS
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