Heather Knight wants more from England’s batters despite opening ODI win

Cam Stephens

6 months ago

Tags: Amy Jones, Australia, Chelmsford, cricket, England, Heather Knight, Nat Sciver, news, newspaper, ODI, Pakistan, runs, T20, T20 cricket, Tammy Beaumont, Taunton, The Cricket Paper, win

Skipper Heather Knight called for an improvement in England’s batting after seizing a 1-0 lead in their three-match ODI series against Pakistan.

England coasted to a 37-run success at Derby as Pakistan fell short of overhauling the home side’s total of 243 for nine.

Knight was among eight English batters to make double figures with 29 as Nat Sciver-Brunt (31), Tammy Beaumont (33) and Amy Jones (37) also made useful contributions.

*Teenager Alice Capsey top scored with 44 for England against Pakistan (Bradley Collyer/PA)*

But no-one went past 50 and only teenager Alice Capsey broke 40 on her way to a personal best ODI score of 44.

“We got a lot of starts and we probably want one of our top five or six batters to go and get that (big score),” Knight said.

“I thought Tammy set the tempo really nicely, she got it just right the way she went about things.

“It was a nice little innings from Capsey too, but it was a bit scrappy and there’s a lot of things we can tighten up.

“We want the batters going on. A lot of us got starts, but you want one batter to really dominate and take that score up to around the 300 mark.

“But it was quite tricky to force the game on that wicket. It was a little bit slow.”

Taunton will host the second game of the 50-over series on Sunday, with the finale in Chelmsford next Wednesday.

Sophie Ecclestone’s three-wicket haul took her on to 98 ODI wickets.

The 25-year-old spinner would eclipse Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick by becoming the fastest woman to take 100 ODI wickets should she take two more scalps at Taunton.

*Sophie Ecclestone is on the brink of becoming the fastest woman to take 100 ODI wickets (Bradley Collyer/PA)*

Having switched from T20 cricket following a 3-0 series win over Pakistan, Knight said: “I’ve spoken about how we’ve not played a huge amount of one-day cricket and finding that tempo can be a little bit hard.

“You’ve just go to show your skills for longer, be a little more patient.

“You’ve got to read the ebbs and flows of the game a bit more and adapt to that.”

Pakistan seemed well placed to mount a victory charge at 149 for four in the 35th over.

But five wickets went for 29 runs in the space of seven overs and ended Pakistan’s hopes of a first ODI win over England at the 13th attempt.

For exclusive stories and all the detailed cricket news you need, subscribe to The Cricket Paper website, digital edition, or newspaper from as little as 14p a day.