England comprehensively beat Pakistan to keep T20 World Cup campaign alive
The DJs at cricket grounds occasionally transcend entertainment and reach wisdom. As England captain Heather Knight walked out to bat on Friday night in Canberra, Freddie Mercury’s voice accompanied her. “Ah-aaaah. Saviour of the universe!”
For the sliver of the universe containing England’s Twenty20 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.
That was too much for Pakistan, bowled out in the final over for 116 as leg-spinner Sarah Glenn took 3 for 15 in the chase. The margin of 42 runs gave another net run rate boost, leaving only an out-of-sorts West Indies between England and a semi-final.
A loss though could see England miss out to any of the West Indies, South Africa or Pakistan. None would be unreasonable. 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 others openers batting at numbers 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 also been a while without many meaningful scores, and keeps getting caught square of the wicket on the off side. Sure enough, 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, in the form of her life, took the wheel.
There must be something about the Canberra air, no longer choked with bushfire smoke. In 73 international T20s, Knight has 1122 runs. Nine have been in Canberra, for 384 of the runs. That’s 35 percent of her career tally in 12 percent of the matches, including her one century and all four of her half-centuries.
Against Pakistan, her cover drives were calm, her late cuts casual, her clouts down the ground clean and long. Sciver being stumped off a wide didn’t stop the boundaries, so Pakistan never had control. It wasn’t surprising that the one chance Knight gave – a hard sweep to deep midwicket – was dropped. Her fifty took 39 balls.
But in the penultimate over Nida Dar had Tammy Beaumont and Knight caught in the deep from consecutive balls. England’s last eight balls of the innings yielded three wickets and six runs; not the flying finish that teams want in this format.
“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.
Glenn is good news, though: in an England set-up that has largely used the same few players year after year, the spinner is a 20-year-old product of the Kia Super League who is making her way at the level above since debuting last December.
“It’s always something I’ve dreamed of doing, but I never thought I’d get this far,” she said. “It’s really exciting for me. A lot of the girls helped me get there, supporting me and helping me fit in.”
After Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt picked up a wicket each 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 the next over while slogging to the leg side. Glenn bowled her full spell straight through, picking up Omaima Sohail at backward point to round it off.
The success came from bowling as she had domestically. “As I’ve grown up I’ve always bowled stump to stump, so I don’t naturally get as much turn,” she said. “Because it’s new to me, they don’t want to throw a load of stuff at me telling me to change this, change that. They’ve just told me to keep it quite simple.”
