After England’s bowling was questioned following each of their two ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup 2022 defeats, seamer Kate Cross believes she and her teammates just need to stick to Plan A against South Africa.
England’s bowlers shipped 310 runs against Australia before more wayward bowling against the West Indies saw them miss out in another narrow loss.
The defending champions have now made it to Tauranga where they will face a South Africa team who are yet to really get going with the bat, despite winning both of their matches.
Cross said: “As a bowling unit, it’s just really important that we remember why we’ve been so successful in the past 18 months, and we probably might have gone away from those plans a little bit too soon.
“You’ve got to bowl your best ball for as long as you can really in one-day cricket, but Katherine [Brunt] and Anya [Shrubsole] have obviously got a record that speaks for itself and they have been a perfect example of this in the World Cup final, they’ll come into their own when we absolutely need them.
“An exciting thing for me is that we’ve not quite seen our bowling unit at its absolute best yet, so when we can start stringing performances together in terms of the batting unit and the bowling unit and the fielding unit together, then we stand ourselves in good stead to start getting some wins on the board.”
Cross is making her debut at a World Cup at the age of 30, and while the experience is still new, she is enjoying feeling at home in Mount Maunganui.
“It’s a bit odd to say that I’m 30 years old and it’s my first World Cup, but it’s been a strange one,” she said.
“Obviously, it’s not really been the start that we wanted and I think you come to these tournaments and you really want those big moments because you know that all eyes are on you.
“We’ve not had that as a team yet and personally I’ve not had those moments myself yet, so I just want to make sure that I’m doing my role for the team as best as I can, and as long as I can.
“But it’s been brilliant, it’s obviously great to tour New Zealand as well, it’s such a gorgeous country.
“We’ve really enjoyed the places we’ve been to so far and the Mount in particular, it’s a favourite of a lot of the girls so it’s been nice to be here for a couple of days and we’ve got two games here back-to-back. It’s nice to spend some time in a part of a country that we love.”
Cross was not involved when England defeated South Africa to reach the 2017 final, and while Proteas captain Sune Luus was on the losing side, she is not thinking of getting revenge.
She said: “A lot has happened in those five years. Both teams have grown, the players’ games have changed, so I don’t think we need to look too much into that semi-final.
“It’s five years ago and that’s a lot in the cricketing career, tomorrow’s a new game, a whole new stage, new World Cup as well, we’ll just take it as it is.”
Despite two wins, South Africa have more to give and Luus is now preparing her team to face an England side with nothing to lose.
“With England losing two games, you have got to expect that they’re going to come hard tomorrow. I don’t think they’re going to leave anything to chance,” Luus said.
“I think they’re going to come all guns blazing and they’re going to want to play their best match to get points on the board. But I do think that puts a bit of pressure on them.
“They need the points, but I think we’re ready for tomorrow as well. I think if we get the points that will really just give us the momentum that we need to just keep continuing in the World Cup and take one game at a time.”
Bangladesh face Pakistan
Bangladesh come up against familiar rivals Pakistan on Monday and captain Nigar Sultana hopes their past experiences can help them earn a first ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup win.
Both sides are yet to pick up points in the 2022 tournament, with Bangladesh making their debut at a women’s one-day World Cup this year.
The Tigresses have beaten Pakistan more than any other team, triumphing five out of the 11 times the two sides have met.
Nigar said: “We know them very well because we have played each other many times, so we have a good idea against them. And I think we have a good chance to make our first win in the World Cup.
“I think the way the girls played the last two matches, I think it was brilliant. The result may not have gone our way but I think we are improving and we could see that in the last two matches.
“You could see how our bowlers bowled against South Africa, it was brilliant. And I think the way the batters batted against New Zealand, it was superb.
“So I think if we could play in the same way, we could implement our batting and bowling plan together - so maybe I think it will be a great match.”
Bangladesh opened their World Cup with two losses in Dunedin, firstly unable to capitalise on bowling South Africa out for 207 in a 32-run defeat, before losing a rain-affected match to hosts New Zealand.
They have now swapped the south island for the sunny surroundings of Seddon Park in Hamilton but Nigar will be treating the game the same, as well as having a fully fit squad to call upon.
She said: “Everyone is super fit and looking forward to playing against Pakistan.
“I think [it will be] more or less the same because we played in Nelson and played in Dunedin and it was more or less same, even though we watched some matches over there, so I think that it is going to be a good pitch.
“We had a good preparation here, and we had some good rest and so players are prepared for the next match.”
With both sides yet to taste victory and no matches ending in ties, one of Pakistan and Bangladesh will put points on the board, even if it comes in a super over.
For Pakistan, they faced rivals India in their opener and succumbed to a 107-run defeat after bewitching India’s top order.
They were then comfortably beaten by Australia before South Africa came out on top in a nervy meeting in Tauranga.
The action begins at 11 am local time and, by the end, either Bangladesh will have their first-ever win at an ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup or Pakistan will have snapped their 17-match losing streak at the tournament.
Content courtesy: ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2020 via Online Media Zone.
Stats
- Match 12 of this year’s tournament will feature Pakistan against Bangladesh in their first ever ICC Women’s World Cup match.
- They have played 11 ODIs between and Pakistan marginally lead the historical head-tohead battle, winning on six occasions, compared to Bangladesh’s five. They last faced each other at the World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe in November 2021, and Bangladesh triumphed by three wickets.
- Match 13 of this year’s tournament will be the seventh meeting between South Africa and England in an ICC Women’s World Cup. England have the upper hand in the head-to-head match-up, winning five of these six encounters, compared to South Africa’s one.
- These two nations have also played 32 ODIs between them excluding the World Cups. England have dominated the one-to-one battle, winning on 24 occasions (lost 7, NR 1). However, they have not faced each other since their bilateral series in June 20
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