England to play hosts South Africa in T20 World Cup semi-final on Friday after trouncing Pakistan to clinch top spot in Group 2; Nat Sciver-Brunt (81no off 40) top-scores as team hit 213-5 in Cape Town; Pakistan limited to 99-9 in reply as England win by record 114 runs
Wednesday 22 February 2023 06:09, UK
England piled on the highest Women's T20 World Cup score of 213-5 as they brushed aside Pakistan by a record 114 runs to avoid a semi-final with favourites Australia.
Heather Knight's side had already qualified for the knockout stages following victories over West Indies, Ireland and India and only a huge defeat to Pakistan in Cape Town would have knocked them off top spot in Group 2 and seen them replaced by India.
Instead, they recorded a massive win - the largest in the competition's history - with Nat Sciver-Brunt (81no off 40 balls), Danni Wyatt (59 off 33) and Amy Jones (47 off 30) powering England past the 193-5 South Africa had hit against Thailand in the 2020 World Cup, before Pakistan made only 99-9.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Jones brought up their hundred partnership from just 46 balls as England racked up 124 from their final 10 overs and smoked 29 boundaries in total (25 fours and four sixes).
England will now face hosts South Africa - who thrashed Bangladesh to finish runners-up in Group 1 - in Friday's second semi-final, with Group 1 winners and defending champions Australia playing India in the first on Thursday.
Australia - who, like England, have won each of their four matches so far - remain on course for a third successive T20 World Cup title after successes in the Caribbean in 2018 and on home soil in 2020.
However, England are a rising force, having won all 12 matches they have played across limited-overs internationals since Jon Lewis took over as head coach in November and been encouraged to play with the boldness that has reinvigorated the men's Test team.
That boldness - and brutality - was on display at Newlands, with only Sophia Dunkley (2), Alice Capey (6) and Knight (4) missing out on the run-fest, dismissed cheaply as they targeted the leg-side.
England were away once three dot ball balls to start the innings were followed by Wyatt slamming left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal for four and then six and Pakistan's punishment continued from that point on.
Pakistan did not help themselves, with wayward bowling, sloppy fielding and a five-run penalty when the ball dropped onto the glove wicketkeeper Sidra Nawaz had discarded, but this was England at their blistering best with the bat.
Wyatt and Nat Sciver-Brunt, who shared a fourth-wicket stand of 74 off 42 balls from 33-2, cantered to 29-ball fifties as they, and latterly Jones, used their feet superbly against Pakistan's cabal of spinners.
Wyatt holed out to long-off in the 12th over and Knight was out sweeping in the 13th before Jones and Nat Sciver-Brunt went berserk in the final seven, blasting 94 runs and 14 boundaries in that time, after Jones had been dropped at short fine leg first ball.
A Jones single took England to the highest Women's T20 World Cup total and the same player's sole six powered them to 200, but Nat Sciver-Brunt was the star, sweeping, pulling and driving her way through a high-class innings as she backed up her fifty against India last time out and overtook Smriti Mandhana as the leading run-scorer in the tournament.
Pakistan's miniscule chances of pulling off a miracle were hit almost immediately when Sadaf Shamas (0) feathered Katherine Sciver-Brunt's second ball of the chase behind to Jones and the wickets just kept on tumbling, with Nida Dar's side slipping to 15-3 inside five overs and to 54-7 in the 13th.
Tuba Hassan (28 off 20) and Fatima Sana (16no) delayed England's victory with a stand of 37 lasting 6.1 overs before Tuba was run out in bizarre style, losing her bearings after believing she had hit Freya Davies down the ground for four.
Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Charlie Dean picked up two wickets apiece in the chase, while there was one each for Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone to go with two run outs.
England's Danni Wyatt:
"We just want to smash records and take it down from ball one. I have always tried to go hard from ball one but I think it's great everyone is getting on board with it now. Lewy [head coach Jon Lewis] is trying to get into our heads to take it on and that is what T20 cricket is all about at the end of the day."
Player of the Match, England's Nat Sciver-Brunt:
"I think we've been building up to a performance like this. We sort of targeted this game as a chance to show everyone as a team what we're about and [with] it being the last game in our group as well, it was a free chance to show off a bit and do the things that we do really well as a group."
Australia take on India in the first semi-final in Cape Town on Thursday before England meet South Africa at the same venue on Frday. Both games start at 1pm UK time with build-up from 12.30pm on Sky Sports Cricket. The final will then be held in Cape Town on Sunday.
