Women’s Cricket World Cup: England’s Katherine Brunt delighted with return to wicket-taking form | Cricket News

March 24, 2022 admin

“I am such a competitive person and want so badly to contribute in every game. I always want to be involved so when you’re not it generally feels rubbish,” says Brunt as she ends four-game run without a wicket by taking three vs Pakistan, helping England move closer to semi-finals

Last Updated: 24/03/22 8:11am

Highlights from the Women's Cricket World Cup, where England beat Pakistan by nine wickets to move closer to making the semi-finals

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Highlights from the Women’s Cricket World Cup, where England beat Pakistan by nine wickets to move closer to making the semi-finals

Katherine Brunt was delighted with her return to form as England moved one step closer to making the World Cup semi-finals.

Brunt, 36, had gone four matches without a wicket ahead of Thursday’s nine-wicket thumping of Pakistan but rallied with 3-17 as England rolled their opponents for 105 en route to a comprehensive win in Christchurch.

The seamer ended her barren run by striking from the first ball of the match – Nahida Khan caught at slip by Heather Knight – and says she was pleased to be back among the wickets with previous games having left her feeling “rubbish”.

In Covid times we can’t go to the hairdressers so grey hairs are emerging. We don’t wish to add to them so we would like some nice comfortable wins. Today was a special day and one we have been aiming towards. Getting a complete game in with bat, ball and in the field. I thought we were very clinical against Pakistan.

Katherine Brunt

Defending champions England will now guarantee a place in the semi-finals if they beat Bangladesh in their final group game, live on Sky Sports World Cup and YouTube from 9.30pm on Saturday.

“I am such a competitive person and I want so badly to contribute in every game in any way. I always want to be involved so when you’re not it generally feels rubbish,” said Brunt.

“I have been struggling for form so I was just so glad Heather held onto the catch so I could go on from there and finally feel a bit of success and contribute to the team.

ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup – Group stage standings

	Played	Won	Lost	Points	Net Run Rate
1. Australia	6	6	0	12	+1.287
2. South Africa	6	4	1	9	+0.092
3. West Indies	7	3	2	7	-0.885
4. England	6	3	3	6	+0.778
5. India	6	3	3	6	+0.768
6. New Zealand	6	2	4	4	-0.229
7. Bangladesh	5	1	5	2	-0.754
8. Pakistan	6	1	5	2	-1.28

“People are going to be emotional at this time of the tour. Missing home and home comforts and being able to switch off from all the excitement, anxiety and stress.

“When you are having to turn up every day and put on a brave face it is difficult and that wicket certainly brought a lot of feeling out of me. I felt a lot of relief – almost too much relief! I was keeping it together hoping it would click and today was the day.

“It has been hard not to overly criticise myself in this situation but we have played on some brilliant batting tracks so you can’t be too hard on yourself. This is sport and the level we are at – and I am only getting older so it’s getting harder.

“[We’re in Covid times], we have been away from home for 11 weeks and I don’t think this is something that any cricketer, female cricketer certainly, will have ever done and probably won’t do again.

“You are figuring out how best to do things. Normally after a tour you go home, go back to the nets and fix things before you go back on tour but we haven’t had that time.”

Everyone is capable of an upset, nothing is assured. We want to turn up and play our best game. We don’t want to be reckless or underestimate anyone. We just want to play our best cricket and get games won.

Katherine Brunt

Elaborating slightly on a technical adjustment she has made, Brunt said: “After the Ashes, I got into bad habits.

“I won’t point out specifically what that technical thing was but I have spotted what was wrong and went through some footage with the bowling coach.

“It’s not something that I necessarily like to do – I like to keep going and believe in what I am doing but I felt the need to intervene.

“That intervention helped it come together and seems to have proved enough to let things happen. Confidence is coming back and days like this are what you need. I am going in the right direction.”

Pakistan 105 all out in 41.3 overs: Katherine Brunt (3-17), Sophie Ecclestone (3-18), Sidra Amin (32)

England 107-1 in 19.2 overs: Danni Wyatt (76no off 68 balls), Heather Knight (24no off 36), Diana Baig (1-14 from six overs)

Player of the Match: Danni Wyatt

England’s fielding was unusually sloppy as they started the tournament with successive defeats to Australia, West Indies and South Africa – but has been much improved in their three straight wins over India, New Zealand and Pakistan.

Brunt added: “It’s part and parcel of sport. You do some iconic things and you do some horrific things where you wish you could crawl into a hole and hide but that is not possible.

“You are out there in front of millions of people and you train like hell to preform really well when it matters.

“Sometimes things like fielding can spread like a disease. You see one person drop a catch, go ‘why did you do that?’ but then you drop one and think ‘what!’. But we have been working hard.”

What’s next?

England’s final group game is against Bangladesh on Saturday (9.30pm, Sky Sports World Cup and YouTube) with a victory enough to secure progression to the semi-final.