The standard of women’s cricket has improved, a clear indication of which were the upsets and close games in the ICC Women’s World Cup, said England left-arm spinner Holly Colvin at the Cooch Behar Room, Cricket Club of India (CCI) on Tuesday.
Defending champion England needs to get two things right in the final round of Super Six matches here on Wednesday in order to earn the right to meet Australia in the final on Sunday; beat New Zealand in the day/night match at the Brabourne Stadium and hope Australia does not falter against the volatile West Indies in the day game. New Zealand would also hope to beat England and improve its net run-rate.
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Colvin, with a small collection of three wickets at 44.33 in the tournament, said her team had no control over the Australia-West Indies match.
“But, our girls thrive on passion and we believe we can win the game and make it to the final.
“It might be an advantage to us (to keep track of the day match at MIG), but we have to remain focused on our match. All 15 players are raring to go,” said Colvin.
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England is in a predicament because it let Australia win a close match by a mere two runs.
Its seamer Anya Shrubsole had reduced Australia to 32 for five before Lisa Sthalekar and Sarah Coyte Close staged a recovery with a 92-run stand for the sixth wicket.
“It was a close game we lost to Australia; in a way it gave us the kick we needed to beat South Africa (at Cuttack) as well,” said Colvin, who has 82 wickets from 64 One-Day Internationals.
Clearly England skipper Charlotte Edwards would expect seamers Shrubsole (13 wkts.), Katherine Brunt (11) and Arran Brindle (8) to play their part once again to outwit New Zealand.
If West Indies wins the match it will straightway make the final because, like Australia, it will have two more points than the third-placed team.
Points position : 1. Australia (8 pts.); 2. West Indies (6 with + 1.136 NRR); 3. England (4, + 1.079) and New Zealand (4, + 0.952).