Knight in shining armour strikes again to rescue England’s ineffective batters
The DJS at cricket grounds occasionally transcend entertainment and reach wisdom. As England captain Heather Knight walked out to bat yesterday at the Manuka Oval, Freddie Mercury’s voice accompanied her: “Ah-aaaah. Saviour of the universe!”
For the sliver of the universe containing England’s T20 World Cup campaign, it was true. Knight again saved her team after two early wickets, with an innings of 62, leading the two partnerships of substance to lift the total to 158 for seven.
That was too much for Pakistan, bowled out in the final over for 116, with leg-spinner Sarah Glenn taking three for 15. The winning margin of 42 runs gave another net run-rate boost, leaving only an outof-sorts West Indies between England and a semi-final.
A loss tomorrow, though, could mean England miss out to any of the West Indies, South Africa or Pakistan.
The reliance on Knight and Natalie Sciver, who made 36 at first drop, underscored that England’s batting remains dysfunctional.
This is a team with two openers bereft of form, two other openers batting at seven and eight, and a bowler who keeps being promoted into the top six despite a lack of results to support the move.
Amy Jones was lbw in the first over, burning England’s umpire review on her way out. Jones made runs in three T20s in December, but either side of that has made 0, 0, 19, 1, 10, 1, 9, 23, 0 and 2.
Her partner, Danni Wyatt, has not made many meaningful scores for a while, and keeps getting caught square of the wicket on the off side. After a couple of lucky miscues and a close lbw shout, she lifted Aiman Anwer to point for 16.
Sciver had already tried to take back control, finessing and driving three boundaries from spinner
Nida Dar in the fourth over. But Knight took the wheel.
In 73 international T20s, Knight has 1,122 runs. Nine have been in Canberra, for 384 of the runs. That is 35 per cent of her career tally in 12 per cent of the matches, including her one century and all four of her half-centuries.
Sciver being stumped off a wide did not stop the boundaries, so Pakistan never had control. Knight’s fifty came up in 39 balls.
But in the penultimate over Dar had Tammy Beaumont and Knight caught in the deep from consecutive balls. England’s last eight balls yielded three wickets and six runs.
“She’s really good at anchoring the innings while also pushing the game forward,” was how young charge Glenn described her captain after play. In other words, Knight is expected to do everything at once.
After Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt each picked up a wicket in the powerplay, Glenn made sure Pakistan would not recover. Loop and drift undid Javeria Khan, the ball dipping beneath her bat to hit her stumps. Iram Javed lost her poles and then Glenn picked up Umaima Sohail at backward point.