Knight: England were outplayed

ENGLAND captain Heather Knight conceded her side were outplayed by India as they suffered a losing start to the Women’s World Cup on Saturday.

India emerged victors by 35 runs at Derby after running up 281 for three to set England what would have been the second-highest successful run chase in women’s one-day international history.

Fran Wilson’s 81 and 46 from Knight kept England in contention but they fell short in the end, bowled out for 246.

Knight said: “I think it was a brilliant match, credit to India I think they outplayed us and they bowled very well and obviously took the game away from us with the bat.

“Really nice to have a good game of cricket but disappointing not to come away with the win.”

Four run-outs, including the key wickets of Wilson, Knight and Katherine Brunt (24), undermined England’s run chase, but Knight felt it was their bowling at the start of India’s innings which ultimately proved costly.

After losing the toss and being put into bat, India scored their sixth highest ODI total with top three Punam Raut (86), Smriti Mandhana (90) and captain Mithali Raj (71) doing the damage.

Knight admitted she felt the conditions would aid England more than they did initially, but felt the tournament hosts did not help themselves either.

She added: “We thought it would do a little more but to be honest I don’t think we put it in the right areas.”