"We got away with one today," was Charlie Dean's summation of England's great escape from Pakistan in a washed-out World Cup match in Colombo.
England have used get-out-of-jail cards against both the teams which had to go through qualifying just to be here. At least against Bangladesh it was largely their own doing after Heather Knight survived three overturned dismissals to haul them out of danger with her 79 not out.
This time, it was down to the brewing monsoon season in Sri Lanka and, with matches against India, Australia and New Zealand looming, England should now have a clear indication of the work ahead of them if they are to move forward with a campaign where their unbeaten record so far flatters them somewhat.
England's latest batting performance was even worse than the 182 for 6 they managed against Bangladesh, who had them 78 for 5 inside 23 overs. Against some brilliant seam bowling by Fatima Sana, who peppered them with in-duckers on her way to figures of 4 for 27 from six overs, England slumped to 78 for 7 in the 24th.
"It wasn't the start that we wanted with the bat and we didn't quite adapt quick enough to the wicket, to the way the ball seamed around," Dean added. "Then I guess we just got a bit bogged down with the spin. It's hard to really be proactive and take on those options when one, they bowled really well, and I guess when you've lost quite a few wickets.
"I'm not a top-order batter, so I don't want to speak for those players and I know that they'll all be disappointed with how today went and looking to rectify that as quickly as possible. We have some world-class players in our XI, in our 15, so we know that that's not how the game's going to go every time but hopefully we can scratch this one off and go ahead on Sunday with a positive mindset."
That they managed to reach 133 for 9 was down largely to Dean who had a job to do - not for the first time - at No. 8, adding 47 runs off 41 balls with No. 9 Em Arlott, called into England's starting XI for the first time when fellow seamer Lauren Bell fell ill along with spinner Sophie Ecclestone.
At this World Cup, Dean has scored 27 not out, having stuck with Knight in for an unbroken 79-run stand against Bangladesh, 19 against Sri Lanka which was the best of England's batters from No.5-11, and now 33 while the more recognised batters have struggled, Knight's innings and Nat Sciver-Brunt's century against Sri Lanka aside.
Amy Jones broke the back of England's pursuit of a paltry 70 against South Africa with 40 not out but hasn't passed 11 since, fellow opener Tammy Beaumont has reached double figures three times in four innings without passing 32 and the middle order of Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb and Alice Capsey has failed to fire.
Still, England are top of the table, level on points but with a superior net run rate to Australia, who threaten to pose an even sterner contest.
England won their warm-up game against Australia, which was somewhat of a surprise given that they left the Ashes in January without registering a single victory from seven matches across formats. That result sparked a change of head coach and captain with Charlotte Edwards replacing Jon Lewis and Sciver-Brunt taking over from Knight.
But the squad make-up hasn't changed markedly and their ability to adapt to conditions and cope under pressure, which was found so wanting in Australia and at the T20 World Cup before that, is now under scrutiny once more.
Next up on Sunday will be India, who are looking to secure a place in the top four after back-to-back defeats at the hands of Australia and South Africa.
"We can definitely be better," said Dean, who was appointed as Sciver-Brunt's vice-captain ahead of this event. "We really want to take it game by game and look to put some of the best teams under pressure with India, Australia, and New Zealand coming up. We're excited for hopefully some better batting wickets or higher-scoring games and to really test ourselves against the best oppositions."