They got a chance to try an extra seamer for the Scotland clash and were successful in their experiment
Valkerie Baynes14-Oct-2024England tested their pace and spin combinations to devastating effect ahead of a move to Dubai for their crucial last group game of this T20 World Cup, against West Indies on Tuesday.Heather Knight, England’s captain, noted ahead of Sunday’s 10-wicket thumping of Scotland that while an enviable attack consisting of four frontline spinners had served her team well, seam had been effective across both venues.Indeed, seam bowling has been more effective than spin across the tournament with wickets coming three runs cheaper for seam bowlers than spinners and at two balls fewer.Related
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So Linsey Smith, the standout performer with the ball in England’s opening win against Bangladesh, made way for Lauren Bell, who took 1 for 16 from her four overs as her side shared the wickets 3-3 between seam and spin.Sophie Ecclestone, Smith’s fellow left-arm spinner was the only multiple wicket-taker with 2 for 13 as offspinner Charlie Dean and seamers Nat Sciver-Brunt and Dani Gibson chimed in with one apiece.It was the perfect match to try out their theory. Scotland had struggled to challenge in their three previous games, despite a plucky performance against Bangladesh in the tournament opener.Scotland started brightly enough, negotiating a meagre powerplay intact and reaching their highest total of the tournament at 109 for 6 but couldn’t get going as England’s bowlers kept them contained.Smith’s low trajectory had proved particularly troublesome to opposition batters on a low and slow Sharjah pitch, while playing two left-arm spinners was a good match-up against South Africa, whom they beat on the same ground, where England have played their first three games. Similarly, New Zealand legspinner Amelia Kerr had walked away with six wickets from two games in Sharjah.But as the pitch showed signs of becoming more conducive to seam – and even swing as a miserly Megan Schutt showed with her twin three-wicket hauls from Australia’s first two games – the evidence supported England’s change.Bell had spent the English summer working with fast bowling coach Matt Mason to remodel her action while playing series against Pakistan and New Zealand and, after sitting out the first two games of this World Cup, it was her turn, to the delight of team-mate Maia Bouchier.Charlie Dean trots in to bowl•ICC/Getty Images”We’ve seen so many improvements from her,” Bouchier said. “She’s worked really hard on her outswing as well, changing her action completely really. She’s put a lot of time and effort and spoken with Lewy (head coach Jon Lewis) and Mase about what she can do to be better and she’s actually taken that on herself, which has been really cool to see.”Working on all these variations, which are really key in these conditions, it’s so important that she’s doing it and lots of the other girls are doing it as well, but she’s put in a really good performance today.”Bouchier herself came into some fine form after two lean outings with the bat of 23 and 8.She scored an unbeaten 62 and Danni Wyatt 51 not out in mowing down a modest 110-run target against Scotland in the 10 overs required to overtake South Africa at the top of Group B on net run rate with a game in hand. England still need to beat West Indies to guarantee a place in the semi-finals.”We knew it was going to be a game that we could take advantage of and putting in a really good performance ahead of the upcoming games, we needed to make sure it was a strong one, and thinking about that net rate as well,” Bouchier said. “We just wanted to get it done as quick as possible.””We really haven’t talked about what could happen,” she added. “We talked a lot about what’s in the present and focusing on each game and no matter what comes up, we will be focusing on what’s happening then.”We could think about who we’re going to play and what’s going to happen, but I think that’s going against our thought processes. Whoever we play, we’re just looking to play on the day.”For herself, Bouchier took her improved performance in her stride.”I’ve been working a lot in the nets on watching and reacting to the ball and my processes in the last year or so… making sure that I’ve been really still at the crease,” she said. “That was the pitch for it. These pitches have worked out quite well for my game. Today was just a really dominant performance from both of us, Danni and I, and also the bowlers, they showed off their class.”Wyatt is England’s leading run-scorer at the tournament so far and fourth overall behind Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt, with India captain Harmanpreet Kaur between the two South Africa openers. Wyatt has 135 runs at an average of 67.50 and strike rate of 123.85.
