Last Update: February 25, 2023, 13:58 IST
Host South Africa beat England by 6 runs
The style of play of the England women’s team under coach John Lewis bears clear parallels with the ‘buzzball’ approach of the England men’s Test team.
Aggressive, aggressive and entertaining cricket has been at the forefront of England’s approach in ICC Women’s T20s. World Cup 2023 in South Africa. And while the semi-final loss to hosts South Africa would sting, it was not their style of play that doomed England.
The style of play of the England women’s team under coach John Lewis bears clear parallels with the ‘baseball’ approach of the England men’s Test team.
Captain Heather Knight believes that this new approach and the confidence her players have gained from such tactics will boost the team’s confidence in the future.
Taking positive choices and asserting themselves in the game, England’s batsmen followed the same template in Friday’s semi-final in Cape Town, with openers Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt getting off the blocks.
The England opening pair put on 53 runs in five overs before Dunkley was dismissed, and the aggressive shots kept coming as England tried and ultimately failed in the face of a formidable bowling and fielding display from South Africa.
Just days ago, England posted their highest ever score of 213 against Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup, and skipper Heather Knight believes the performance helped prove the strategy was correct. Even though the execution against the Proteas was probably perfect. No.
“I think we got pretty close to chasing that world record score, so I think that proves it’s a very good strategy,” Knight said at his media conference after the semi-final loss.
“I think Sophia and Danny were outstanding in the top order and put us ahead of the game. We were well ahead of where South Africa were but they were obviously able to score heaps of runs at the back end as we unfortunately Wasn’t able to take wickets.
“But yeah, I think the mindset has been excellent, especially in the batting group. We really wanted to do something different.”
Playing this kind of positive cricket is not entirely new to an England team, which has been impressing in both white-ball formats in recent years, reaching the final of last year’s Women’s World Cup. Cricket world Cup.
But attacking intent was given even greater importance in the appointment of Lewis in November, with the coach keen to support wide-ranging spells through the game.
Knight said, “It’s something we had the foundation for before Jon came on, but we’ve seen a real turnaround and I think it’s proving that it’s entertaining.”
“It is good to see and we always talk about trying to fit the mindset as well as the conditions and being smart with it.
“It is not purely about taking risks and as a batsman, it is always about weighing your risks. But in T20 cricket I think you don’t have that much time not to take risks.”
Knight believes that this experience will be of great benefit to the team which has a lot of young talent.
“I think especially the young players will learn a lot from it. A lot of them have played in front of big crowds but when there’s a lot of it and when it’s a World Cup semi-final, it adds to it. I think we will keep the faith in T20 cricket, unfortunately sometimes you lose games. And today was not our day,” Knight was quoted as saying by the ICC in a report on its website.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)