SUPERCHARGED SCIVER PUTS ENGLAND ON TOP
Vithushan Ehantharajah suggests that the home side’s revival makes them favourites for title
You learn a lot about sides following defeat. After England started their World Cup campaign with a sizeable loss against India in Derby, many thought it was a sign that things weren’t as promising as they had seemed since the 2016 World T20. That last summer’s pummelling of Pakistan and the respective series wins in West Indies and Sri Lanka were false dawns.
England’s professionalism had got them through all three tasks, but their mettle in international competition was still frail.
Instead, the victories flowed. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and then South Africa were put to the sword. Next, in an absolute classic at Bristol, the defending champions Australia were put to bed. That was the result that told us the most. Many of the squad carry scars of that chastening defeat to Australia in the semi-final of that World T20, where fitness and nerve were called into question by Mark Robinson who, barely six months into his tenure as England head coach, was appalled at the state his team were in.
Yet here they were, batting long and hard to stoke up a target of 260.Was it enough? Not much is when Lanning and Perry go large. For a lot of their partnership, it looked as if the game was gone. Then, out of nowhere, England struck back. Meg Lanning fell. Then, eventually, Ellyse Perry. In a tester of a last over Australia blinked first and the hosts won by three runs.
The bedlam of the occasion – a crowd of more than 4,000, cheering their hearts out with every dot and single – took a lot out of the players.
Nat Sciver said she couldn’t really hear herself think, which was just as well because it was she who dropped Perry on 67, only to make amends the over after to remove her for 70.
New Zealand, their Wednesday opponents, were hoping to come up against a team nursing the hangover of such an enthralling win. They are a team that do the simple things well and exploit their opponents’ kinks. Some mental tiredness would be right up their street. Especially at the venue where England had started with a loss.
Upon winning the toss, Heather Knight had no qualms in batting first. But when she fell to New Zealand skipper Suzie Bates in the 14th over, with the score 52-3, it was India all over again. Then, they were 67-3, eventually falling 35 shy of their 282 target. Were they to fall short once more?
Not if Sciver and Tammy Beaumont had anything to do with it. For 27.1 overs, they calmed, consolidated and then put on a clinic. What started as slow progress – Sciver, usually dashing from the off, scored just two from her first 10 deliveries – eventually turned into the sort of procession that we have come to expect more of from this England line-up. Collectively, they were bruising: a fourth wicket stand of 170 taking the wind out of New Zealand’s sails. As individuals, they outlined the progresses they have made. Sciver caught up with herself, bringing up her half-century from 55 balls before reaching her second ODI hundred (a second of the World Cup, too) from 92 balls.
There were no sixes and ‘just’ 11 fours in her eventual score of 129. But she produced the shot of the tournament, instantly dubbed the “Natmeg”, when she deliberately dug out a leg stump yorker to square leg for a couple. Had she practised the shot
before? “Oh, she does it all the time,” said England spinner Laura Marsh, impressed and frustrated by the sheer talent and audacity of her teammate.
Beaumont, on the other hand, fell short of a hundred, but her 93 from 102 balls showed that, as much as she has made a name for herself as a dasher up top, she can dig deep, as she did with a 88-ball 49 against Australia, to put her side above her own entertainment.
With that, England had recovered to set New Zealand 285.
The chase was always going to be in England’s favour once Sophie Devine left the field to receive treatment on an injured side. It was Alex Hartley – at 23, emerging as one of the best young spinners on the planet – who ensured it fell fully England’s way, though. Her 3-44 accounted for top-scorer Suzie Bates (44) and, eventually, Devine, who couldn’t recreate her heroics against Pakistan in which she struck a record nine sixes in a 41-ball 93.
And so, England triumphed by 75 runs. Five wins in a row, they now sit top, in control of their own destiny.
What have we learned about England since defeat? That they are world champions in waiting.