Knight in shining armour leads England’s Thai rout
SYDNEY: England captain Heather Knight smashed the first hundred of the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup to fashion their comprehensive 98-run win against Thailand in a Group B match on Wednesday.
Knight smashed 108 not out and forged a 169-run stand with Natalie Sciver to help England overcome a horror start and post 176-2, the highest total in this year’s tournament so far, at Canberra’s Manuka Oval.
England then returned to restrict Thailand to 78-7 and bounce back from Sunday’s loss to South Africa with the biggest victory, in terms of runs, in the tournament’s history.
“We were obviously gutted after the performance the other day, so it was really important we came back with a good performance,” Knight said.
“We just tried to keep it quite simple...it was about building partnership, not panicking, staying very calm,” she said of her association with Sciver which yielded the biggest partnership in the tournament’s history.
Put into bat, England had a horrifying start to the contest which pitted the tournament’s inaugural 2009 champions and its Asian debutantes.
Amy Jones and opening partner Danni Wyatt both fell for ducks, leaving England reeling at 7-2 in the second over.
Knight joined Sciver to ensure Thailand, who lost to West Indies on their World Cup debut, did not get another chance to celebrate a dismissal.
In the other match, Pakistan upset West Indies by eight wickets, completing a chase with 10 balls to spare after restricting the former champions to 124-7. Javeria Khan (35) and Muneeba Ali (25) gave Pakistan a strong start and captain Bismah Maroof (39 not out) anchored the chase for a winning start to their campaign.