CRICKET: Winning World Cup In 2017 Can Help England – Knight

Heather Knight, England’s captain, is hoping that her team’s experience from winning the Women’s World Cup in 2017 will help them beat Australia for the title this year in Christchurch on Sunday.

England, who won the tournament five years ago after defeating India in the final, will face an Australian side that has trounced them in prior meetings and is seeking the country’s eighth 50-overs title.

“I think the positive memories that a lot of this group has of winning the 50-over World Cup finals will be really useful for us,” Knight said. “Knowing that we can deal with that pressure when games are close and things are on the line will be really useful for us.”

“”We have the guys who can play their best cricket and rise to the occasion.”

Despite a sluggish start to the campaign, England has reached the final.

Midway through the group stage, they began their campaign with a one-wicket victory over hosts New Zealand. They advanced to the semi-finals after victories over Bangladesh and Pakistan, where they crushed South Africa by 137 runs.

Australia won the recent Ashes series before losing to their great rivals by 12 runs in the group round, but Knight believes her squad has progressed since then.

“We pushed them pretty hard in that first group game, batted incredibly well, and I think our bowling has started to peak towards the conclusion of this competition,” she said.

“I don’t think our bowling was quite up to par in that game, and the bowlers as a unit are lot more cohesive now.”

“Obviously, we haven’t had good success against them recently, but we are confident that we can beat them on the day.”