Knight 70, Capsey 81 Power England to 2-1 T20 Series Win
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- Heather Knight smashed an unbeaten 70 off 42 balls with 10 fours to anchor England's chase of 181, a sharp turnaround after lean T20 scores of 19(17), 25(23), 18(22), 21(24) and 18(14) across her prior five innings against New Zealand and India.
- Alice Capsey struck 81 off 43 and added an unbroken 137 for the fourth wicket with Knight after England had slipped to 38-3, with head coach Charlotte Edwards calling it the best she had seen the 21-year-old play.
- Charlotte Edwards insisted there was never any dressing-room doubt about Knight's World Cup place and pointed to her character as the biggest attribute behind the return to form, taking a swipe at the outside noise around the 35-year-old.
- Nat Sciver-Brunt will bat at three in the T20 World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on 12 June, but Edwards said the captain and star all-rounder is unlikely to bowl in next week's warm-ups against India and Australia in Cardiff, leaving seam-bowling roles for Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson.
- Sophia Dunkley is now the player under the most selection pressure, with just 98 runs in six T20 innings this summer and a top score of 26 after wasting several promising starts.
- England were outplayed in the first T20 at Chelmsford before this emphatic turnaround, with Edwards saying the week 'couldn't have gone any more perfectly' as a World Cup build-up and praising the competition for places she has cultivated since taking the role.
Why it matters: On the eve of a home T20 World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on 12 June, this win locks in Knight and Capsey as World Cup starters, but Sciver-Brunt's bowling limitations push Kemp and Gibson into the XI and leave opener Sophia Dunkley — 98 runs in six innings, top score 26 — as the most vulnerable name on the team sheet.
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