England women cricket captain Heather Knight has vowed that the shocking loss in the Women’s World Cup opening match to India is not going to change how England’s team is going play. With 8 teams contesting in the round-robin group phase, England still has another 6 matches from which it has to qualify to the semi-finals. But then again, Knight understands that her side should start winning the matches after the thirty-five defeat at Derby, starting against Pakistan on Tuesday in Leicester. ‘It’s about how we react now,’ Knight stated. ‘Defeat won’t change how we play, but it keeps us honest. It’s not the ideal start or how we wanted to do it, but there’s a lot of cricket to be played in this tournament. Hopefully, we can build momentum towards the back end of the competition and a different pitch on Tuesday will dictate how we play.’ Knight stated that the occasion did not get to her side, and added that: ‘I didn’t notice anything different in the warm-up or how the girls have been in the past few days. Everyone’s been very relaxed and that’s the way it’s been for the last few weeks.’ England’s best bowlers, Anya Shrubsole as well as Katherine Brunt, had struggled with the lengths, whilst the fielders put down the three regulation catches. Behind the wickets, Sarah Taylor also missed the edge down of the leg side. England in addition also did not perform while batting as well, with the four-run outs becoming the final cause of their defeat. Knight, however, admired Fran Wilson’s innings of eighty-one and said that there were some positives which the team could take from the match.
Fran’s come a long way in the last couple of years, she has come back into the fold and done really well,’ said the all-rounder captain. ‘To see how calm she was and the way she played was really pleasing. ‘There were a couple of run outs near the end, where we were desperately scrambling for runs, so we won’t be looking too much into it. We’ll take the positives and look to Tuesday.’
