Heather Knight says England have prepared well to face Australia in Women's World T20 final

Ahead of the Women's World T20 final, England captain Heather Knight discusses the possibility of holding two white-ball trophies simultaneously, facing old foes Australia, support from back home and more...

The 50-over World Cup champions will take on the Southern Stars, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 11.30pm on Saturday, and the all-rounder gave her thoughts on a range of topics.

Heather, this will be your second global tournament final in 15 months. How do the two compare?

KNIGHT: Hopefully this final won't be quite as tight as the last one. But, yeah, what a brilliant year, 18 months, it's been for the team to make another global final. It's a real achievement, I think, especially the experience we've brought to this tournament, and the girls are massively excited.

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It's probably not been the smoothest ride to get to the final, but the main thing is we're here and we've got another opportunity to have a shot at winning a global trophy again and what an achievement it would be, how special it would be, if we could be double white-ball champions.

Are your feelings similar to those you experienced 15 months ago, just ahead of the final?

KNIGHT: Looking back, I guess it will be the same sort of excitement, the same nerves, but also there's the fact we know we've been through that. We won that final last year, and that gives us real confidence. Obviously, it's a completely different format, different opponents leading into the final, and I think it's going to be a great game. Hopefully, the girls can show the fight and resilience that we've shown throughout this competition and put in a real performance.

We've heard from Meg Lanning about the kind of distinctiveness of the England-Australia rivalry. Is there something particularly potent about facing Australia in a final?

KNIGHT: I think you can't really ignore that it's the old enemy, can you? It's probably the two best teams in the world historically over the last few years, and we've had some amazing games of cricket recently. We had the Ashes series we drew out in Australia and a really good T20 series out there for us, where we won 2-1, and the game to finish off the series was a real thriller. So all history suggests it's going to be a really good game, really tight game.

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We're going to have to be at the top of our game. The Australians look really strong, they've played some really great cricket in this tournament. It's going to be another brilliant day for women's cricket, and hopefully we've got some of the crowds similar to what's been in the semi-finals.

Nine years ago, England did the double in 2009. What would it mean to you as a skipper to be able to be a dual world champion and repeat what England did in 2009?

KNIGHT: It would be really special. We look back at 2009, and that's a really sort of quality team in the history of women's cricket, and we spoke about that team, some of the girls were obviously involved in that, and we talked about emulating them, about the opportunity to do that. It doesn't come around very often, and I guess as a team it's our chance to really cement ourselves in history as a brilliant white ball format team.

It's a great opportunity for us but we've got to focus on the game - how we perform, how we carry ourselves, how we continue the good things that we've done so far in this competition. If you sort of look after the processes, you're hopeful that you put yourself in the best place to put in a good performance and get that result. It would be very special if we were able to achieve that.

What's the support been like from home?

KNIGHT: The support from back home has been phenomenal. Obviously, you've seen the supporters out here, the friends and family, and they've really been a boost for us actually during the game when you sort of look over and see them dancing to the very catchy 'Watch This' song has been brilliant and a real source of inspiration for us. Hopefully people will switch on again Saturday night back home, and hopefully we'll put in a really good performance for them.

Did you know you were on a hat-trick on Thursday?

KNIGHT: Yes, I was aware that I was on a hat-trick, but the best decision for the team was for Anya to bowl that over to the next end. Obviously, next time I come up to bowl, I'll actually be on a hat-trick.

In men's T20 cricket there's a lot of emphasis on analytics. Has that come into the equation?

KNIGHT: T20 cricket is the most planned game. It's probably the most preparation that I've been in as captain and as bowlers in terms of having quite a clear framework of how you get about things. You obviously adjust and flex with that during the game, but the coaches and myself and all the bowlers do a lot of work into looking at previous areas that batters score, things like that, and stats. I think T20 has probably become the most analytical game in the way it's gone around the world. It's quite interesting, actually, to look at some trends and try to incorporate that into your tactics on the pitch.

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So you say no space for sentiment at all in today's T20 game?

KNIGHT: It's sport. Of course there's place for sentiment. At the end of the day, you can break a game down into analytics and statistics, but it's all about the players playing out there, the characters, the narratives that you get from sport and from cricket, and this tournament's been no different. That's what it's about. It's about using the tools you've got at your disposal to try and write those stories and try and be successful.

Do you think you need to do anything different in terms of the way you played yesterday compared to the way you're going to approach the game?

KNIGHT: We obviously had very clear plans for the Indian bowlers, and the Australian team will throw slightly different tactics and different challenges for us. So for us, it's about adapting to that again. We know potentially how the wicket is going to play.

For me, I think the most pleasing thing, the two games we've had in this tournament that have been must-win, do or die games, we've put in outstanding performances. We've been really clinical. Really sort of calm under pressure. Just done it in a sort of no-nonsense way and gotten the job done. And that's what tomorrow is about.

We've shown some brilliant heart and brilliant fight this tournament, and that's going to stand us in good stead. It might not win us the game tomorrow, but it gives us a really good shot. There's always things you can improve, and even on yesterday, what was a very good performance. But, yeah, we're going to have to put in a strong performance and have all four facets of the game come together for us to win that final.

Alyssa Healy has been the dominant player for Australia this tournament. Are you going to spend a bit of extra time coming up with plans for her?

KNIGHT: Yes, she's played really well. She's probably been the one batter that's been consistent throughout the tournament. Of course, we'll look at her. We'll look at all of their players. They've got a very strong batting lineup, a very deep batting lineup. We're going to have to have clear plans in place to obviously reflect the conditions that we're going to face as well.

Watch the final of the Women's World T20 between England and Australia live on Sky Sports from 11.30pm on Saturday.