Captain Heather Knight scored an unbeaten hundred as England Women beat Thailand to return to winning ways in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
Knight’s
108 saw her become the first English cricketer – male or female – to score
hundreds in Test, ODI and IT20 cricket.
The 169 she put on with Nat Sciver is also England’s highest partnership in women’s IT20 cricket. To add to a day of landmarks down under, Knight also passed 1,000 IT20 runs.
The pair’s
partnership initially settled some early nerves after Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt
had departed without scoring, before accelerating to see England up to 176/2.
In reply, Thailand reached 78/7 from their 20 overs with Anya Shrubsole taking 3/21. England take on Pakistan at the same venue on Thursday (8am GMT).
Knight said after the victory: “It’s nice to get a hundred, and it’s nice to get the win. Nat and I wanted to stay positive and keep our intent – batting where we do you sometimes need to rebuild before you can counter-punch and build again at the end.
“The way Amy and Danni bat – we want them to be aggressive – they’re likely to get out for low scores every once in a while and that’s fine, because we want them to get us off to a quick start.
“I was quite nervous before the game but sometimes I bat my best when I’ve got a few nerves around.
“I like batting at Canberra, I think it suits my game, and I’m really happy to get an IT20 ton because I’ve put a lot of work into developing my game in this format.”
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