England Women are almost guaranteed a place in the final of the Tri-series at Chelmsford on Sunday. Only the worst concatenation of disasters in Thursday’s double-header at Bristol can stop the hosts qualifying.
For England to be prevented from reaching the Tri-series final, South Africa will have to beat New Zealand by a large margin in the first double-header, then New Zealand will have to beat England, again by a large to huge margin, so that England miss out on net run-rate.
An England failure to qualify is less likely to happen now that Nat Sciver is scoring runs again. After a lean few months of international cricket, she made 59 off 37 balls to enable England to beat New Zealand by 54 runs in the second game of Saturday’s double-header at Taunton.
Sciver, as an all-rounder, gives England Women the same sort of balance that Ben Stokes does for England. To purse the comparison a little further, Jonny Bairstow has a shadow in Tammie Beaumont who opens the innings with a similar stance, aggressive attitude and wristy power, and both are reeling off centuries: when Beaumont was bowled for 71 in the first double-header against South Africa, it was her first “failure” after scoring three successive hundreds.
Sciver, 25, was athletic enough to be spoiled for choice of sports as she grew up, the daughter of a mother who was a diplomat. She was born in Tokyo, lived in Poland and it was only when her family moved to Netherlands in her teens that she started playing cricket - along with tennis and football.
Sciver’s football World Cup has therefore been a complicated one as she has been following all the countries where she has lived, as well as England.
Her finest stroke in her 50 against New Zealand was when she stood back and drove over extra-cover rather imperiously. Sciver’s running between wickets is also that of an allround athlete.
One area of improvement for England, however, if they are to win the final on Sunday is their fielding - their catching rather than their ground-fielding. Sciver was as big a culprit as any, dropping two catches in the deep when South Africa surprised England by knocking off their target in the final over.
England rallied well to beat New Zealand in the second game of the day but they still missed a total of ten catchable chances in all, though not helped at times in the second game by the setting sun.
Altogether it made for a delightful double-header with a crowd not far short of 3000 and some exceptional cricketers to watch on each of the three sides.