Women’s Cricket World Cup: Heather Knight says England have ‘knockout mindset’ after consecutive defeats | Cricket News

England suffer fifth consecutive ODI loss with a thrilling seven-run defeat to the West Indies in Dunedin; Tammy Beaumont top-scores with 46 but they fall short in their chase of 226 despite Sophie Ecclestone taking three wickets in an over and scoring 33

Heather Knight insists England are not finished yet as they fight to make amends after back-to-back defeats at the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.

England were beaten by seven runs against the West Indies having fallen short in their pursuit of 226, which had looked in sight until Kate Cross and Anya Shrubsole were dismissed in the space of three balls to end the chase.

It followed on from their 12-run opening-game defeat to Australia in which Nat Sciver’s superb 109 not out went unrewarded.

Next up is a meeting with South Africa in Tauranga on Monday, with skipper Knight eager to avoid dwelling on the team’s early disappointment.

“First and foremost, we can’t linger on it too much,” Knight said. “We’ve made it tricky for ourselves, but there’s no way are we out of this World Cup yet.

“So we have to focus on the next game, get what we can from this game, park it and move on to be ready for South Africa.

“We were clear on our plans – we just didn’t quite execute, at times. “They finished pretty strongly, and it’s something we can do better with the last 10 overs.

“It’s something we’ll look at and keep improving, our back-end stuff.”

England were made to pay for five dropped catches in the game, while a shortage of middle order runs also proved defining after Tammy Beaumont had top-scored with 46.

Shemaine Campbelle fired 66 to add to Chedean Nation’s unbeaten 49 as the West Indies closed on 225 for six.

“They batted outstandingly at the start on a good wicket. But we clawed it back brilliantly, Sophie Ecclestone and Kate Cross were outstanding in that middle period,” she told Sky Sports.

“We felt like we were in a good position but the last six or seven overs went for too many today. “The fielding performance wasn’t us. We’re not too concerned, there’s a bit of frustrating but there’s a lot we could’ve done differently there. We’ve got to be better as a fielding group.

“It was a good wicket, but at halfway we thought they had a below-par score. We got a few good partnerships together but clusters of wickets cost us.

“I want the girls to keep that attacking mindset but we just need to be more clinical with the execution.

“Sophie has worked so hard on her batting, she’s a proper batter and she got us into a really good position with Kate Cross.”

Knight says England now need a “knockout mindset” as they look to rescue the defence of their World Cup crown.

“The next game is crucial,” she added. “So we have to bring that mindset of needing to win every game and that simplifies things.

“And hopefully that will sharpen people up, sharpen people’s minds to what we need to do.

“Because at the moment we’re fighting for our lives in this tournament.

“There’s a lot of experience in this group, we’ve lost games before and we know we can’t dwell on defeats too much.”

Watch every game of the Women’s Cricket World Cup live on Sky Sports World Cup, with New Zealand’s clash with India live on Sky Sports Cricket (00:30), Sky Sports Main Event (01:30) this Thursday.