Key events
Loads of talk on Sky about what lies ahead. What lies ahead you ask? A World Cup in Bangladesh, so much of England’s strategy will focus on a game plan that will work down the road. That means bowlers targeting the stumps and batters going hard in the powerplay.
No drama for Pakistan, says Nida Dar: the visitors would have bowled first anyway.
Three changes for Pakistan. Aliya solidifies the middle order with added more grunt with her power hitting. Sadia’s seem and Nashra’s spin will offer something different.
Pakistan: S Ameen, Gull Feroza, Sadaf, Muneeba, Dar (c), Aliya, Fatima, Diana, Waheedam Nashra, Sadia.
England win the toss and bat
The coin flip goes Knight’s way and she’s keen to set a score. “It’s home conditions,” she says with a shrug.
Brunt, as expected, is back in the side in place of Freya Kemp. Brunt won’t be playing as an all-rounder as she’s not quite fit enough to bowl.
England: Bouchier, Wyatt, Capsey, Sciver-Brunt, Knight (c), Jones, Gibson, Dean, Ecclestone, Glenn, Bell.
Confirmed: Nat Sciver Brunt is warming up.
England’s batters will be looking for improvement tonight. A quick glance at the ICC’s rankings list shows that there’s an imbalance in the side.
Sophie Ecclestone tops the list with Sarah Glenn up two places to fourth, Charlie Dean is fifth and Lauren Bell is up four places in seventh spot.
However, not a single batter is in the top 10 with Nat Sciver-Brunt the highest ranked in 14th.
Rankings don’t mean much, but they mean a little at least, and this is certainly something to adress.
I should have mentioned earlier that last week’s game was Amy Jones’ 100th for England. And she snaffled four catches as well dig her team out of a hole with the bat.
If you want to show her some love, or anyone love, or indifference, or criticism, or want to share something with the group, or just want to say hi, drop me a line at daniel.gallan.casual@guardian.co.uk.
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
Hello there and welcome to the live coverage of this second T20 international. Last Saturday (which feels like a really long time ago) Heather Knight and Amy Jones rescued the cause from 11-4 to haul England to 163-6. Then Lauren Bell (three-for) and Sarah Glenn (four-for) wrapped a comfortable 53 run win in Birmingham.
That was England’s 15th T20 win over Pakistan from 16 matches and they could have – for my money – the best player in the world back in the mix tonight.
Nat Sciver-Brunt, Wisden’s most recent leading female cricketer of the year, was unavailable last week as she was having her eggs frozen with a view to having children one day.
Other than that it would be a surprise to see too many changes, both in personnel and in approach. Bell told Cricinfo this week that England will look to up the ante regarding their attacking mindset and has vowed to “attack the stumps” as a default.
It’s a T20 and anything can happen. And England’s top order collapse shows that they are fallible. But I can’t see anything other than a smooth ride for the home side. Should be good fun either way.
Toss and teams to come, first ball delivered at 6:30pm BST.
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