Brunt, Wyatt find form to lift England to big win against Pakistan
Defending champions bowl out Pakistan for 105 and chase it down inside 20 overs to keep semi-final hopes alive
Defending champions bowl out Pakistan for 105 and chase it down inside 20 overs to keep semi-final hopes alive
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: S. Sudarshanan
6:53pm After three losses in three matches, England have come back roaring into this World Cup. They are now fourth in the points table and, as I said earlier, have moved past India in terms of NRR, too. Australia and Bangladesh clash tomorrow in Wellington. Do join us for that. Meanwhile, you can check out all the updates from the Men's Test between Pakistan and Australia here. For now, that's it from us here as I, S. Sudarshanan, take your leave on behalf of Ekanth and our scorer Venkat. Ciao, amigos!
Heather Knight This was a complete performance. Really pleased with how we have done today. Bowlers exploited the green on the surface. Brunt bowled well and she returned to form. She's put a bit of work in her action and made sure everything is right. It was only time before a player like her rose and came back to form. Diana bowled outstandingly and threatened the outside edge. If we would have batted first, we would have batted carefully to post 270. After the start we had, we just had to remind the girls that it is not how you start but how you finish that matters.
Bismah Maroof I think two run-outs in the top order damaged us. If we could have stayed in, we could have batted more and played 50 overs, which would have given bowlers more to defend. Our bowling is our strength, so we believe we can take wickets of any team. That's why we like to bowl first and chase. Our batting approach has to be changed and we are talking about that. We have hitters who can play shots. It's just about applying ourselves. Diana Baig was brilliant, Fatima Sana was brilliant in the previous game and I hope she comes good in the next.
Each of these round-robin matches are crucial from the qualifying point of view and England would have so wanted to get both Brunt and Wyatt in form, and that happened. What do Pakistan do next? They face New Zealand on Saturday while England have an easier opposition in Bangladesh. Let's hear soon from the captains about this game.
It's about the small things, isn't it? Defending 105, Pakistan would have wanted every bit of luck to go their way in order to make a match out of it. However, Nida Dar couldn't hold on to a very tough chance of Wyatt at the start and the England opener made them pay. But Pakistan would have to have a critical eye at their batting. Yet again a change at the top with Nahida Khan coming in for Muneeba Ali, who looked the previous game. But she fell to a jaffa early on and the rest of the order, too, collapsed.
Who's the player of the match? Katherine Brunt or Danni Wyatt? Wyatt it is for her maiden Women's World Cup half-century. Very happy to do it tonight. Really pleased to have the win but big shout out to Brunt, who bowled her heart out today. We trained yesterday and saw that the wicket was gonna be green like back home. We wanted to capitalise on any width and go hard and go big. It was a sensible innings by me, wanted to get over the line and get among the runs.
6:38pm A dominating nine-wicket win for England! They've not just moved to six points on the table but also have a better net run rate than India and are placed at the fourth spot. It is a win that was well set up by Katherine Brunt, whose return to form would have pleased England, and Sophie Ecclestone, who was too good once again in the competition. Both Brunt and Ecclestone picked three wickets each to strike regularly and keep Pakistan to a mere 105.
Fatima Sana comes in to bowl.
"I took it right down to the bare bones of it and drilled a lot yesterday to try and be able to turn up today and make it as natural as possible," says Brunt
Defending champions bowl out Pakistan for 105 and chase it down inside 20 overs to keep semi-final hopes alive
England looking to overcome late batting collapse which nearly cost them against NZ
Being an integral part of England's bowling attack, she has five wickets this World Cup so far