England's determination to embrace the "chaos" of the Women's T20 World Cup could not have worked out more perfectly - even if, as it turned out, they had planned for one type of chaos, but accidentally ended up nailing it for another.
Little did they know that, in booking a pre-tournament training camp that would appeal to the considerable number of golf enthusiasts in the squad in Abu Dhabi, the event would be shifted to the UAE because of civil unrest in Bangladesh.
But head coach Jon Lewis's decision to throw a number of curve-balls at the squad during New Zealand's tour in June and July, driven by a desire to put players under pressure and see how they responded, looks like a masterstroke given such last-minute uncertainty over the venue.
It all harks back to the previous T20 World Cup at the beginning of last year, where England were knocked out at the semi-final stage by hosts South Africa. That was barely three months into Lewis's tenure, having taken over from Lisa Keightley after the 2022 home summer and he has since been pleased with the squad's ability to turn around some of their shortcomings, including handling pressure against Australia in last year's drawn Ashes series.
"The biggest thing that came out of that World Cup that we're still working on is dealing with pressure moments," Lewis said. "I feel like we've been put under pressure quite regularly actually in games. The Australians did it a lot to us last summer and we came through that really well after probably a stuttering start in the Test match and the first T20. How we came out of that series, the confidence we took from that series was massive.
"My observations of the last World Cup were we weren't particularly well connected on the field and our senior player group in particular, they weren't able to communicate well enough at the right time. So we worked really hard at that and also the group weren't brilliant at giving each other feedback about how to improve.
"We've worked hard at the way we communicate, we've worked hard at the way we connect and we've worked hard at certain individual skills, some more than others in terms of technical development, and I think we're a more well-equipped cricket team than we were two years ago to go and tackle the World Cup. What I would say is the other teams have done probably exactly the same."
In terms of skill development - and dealing with chaos - top-order batter Sophia Dunkley and seam bowler Lauren Bell are key examples. Both made significant technical changes and then had to try them out in matches against a New Zealand side which admittedly didn't pose the sort of test Lewis might have hoped for, but which still required them to experiment on the international stage.
Both are still works in progress. Dunkley, having changed her grip, now has access to a range of shots she didn't have before and is therefore still working out how and when to employ those.
Bell remodelled her action during the English summer, her move to a more upright position unearthing an ability to swing the ball both ways, which she has since been focusing on making more consistent, as well as developing a wobble-ball.
"We saw a player who was being effective at international level," Lewis said of Bell. "But I don't want players who are effective at international level, I want players who are dominant at international level and dominant for a long period of time.
"At some point in their journey you've got to say, 'right, okay, if we do this, we make an adjustment here', at some point in time down the road - it might not be immediately and you have to as a coach think, 'there could be quite a big backward step here before you get to the point where we go forward' - you have to make that adjustment."
With young players and in the unpredictable format of T20 cricket, that's a brave thing to do, and dealing with inevitable dips in form that might come before or be interspersed with success is crucial.
Lewis had valuable allies in captain Heather Knight and Liam Sanders, England Women's Head of Intelligence, in introducing some chaos.
Sanders joined the set-up about a year ago from a decade-long background working in Olympic and Paralympic sport, including gymnastics, and has an over-arching strategic brief to support decision-making, whether at the selection table, on the field or in long-range planning for future series.
"What was really nice that played out was that we intentionally - with a little bit of support from myself but mainly Heather and Lewy - had the courage of conviction to say we're going to instil a little bit of chaos within the team," Sanders said. "It's been quite nice around the discussions that we had and the evidence that we put forward that it played out quite nicely in the summer."
During the New Zealand series, Knight sat out and handed the captaincy to deputy Nat Sciver-Brunt for a match, effectively playing out an injury/illness scenario. England also played four spinners in a match, the same four ultimately selected in the World Cup squad in Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith.
As they discovered, best-laid plans often do go awry, but Sanders didn't see that as a bad thing, necessarily.
"We've been targeting Bangladesh and Bangladesh conditions for some time," Sanders said. "You can be laser-focused in 'this is what we're dealing with' but I'm also quite relaxed in a way, in that there are certain things that are totally out of our control and there's some really sad situations going on in Bangladesh, so we've just got to flex and adapt to what we're dealing with.
"It keeps you on your toes, it's the nature of the sport and we will learn and review how we've dealt with that change and how it's impacted our decisions but it's quite nuanced and unique."
Lewis has embraced the element of luck thrown in England's direction and he was comfortable he had the personnel to make the most of it.
"We're in a really fortunate position that we've already had this camp booked in Abu Dhabi, which feels like a really big advantage, that we're going to go and play our practice in the conditions that we're going to play in," Lewis said. "By the time we finish that, we'll have had 10 days training there to work out the conditions and work out how the best way to play it is.
"We've got a really together group, they feel really welcome, they get on really well and they're starting to be better at helping each other play cricket. I feel like we're in a good position, but it's a World Cup, things happen, it's hard to predict when pressure goes on what people will do, but we try."