Georgia Elwiss will be blogging exclusively for ecb.co.uk during the ICC Women’s World T20 in India. In the first installment she reveals her thoughts on England’s warm-up double over New Zealand, the voluntary Super Over played against the White Ferns and how the girls spent their rest day in Chennai.
Hello from the hottest and most humid country I have ever known! India is certainly producing the heat and we are having to use all the nutrition and hydration strategies that we can think of to make sure we are recovering properly between training and matches.
We have kicked-off our campaign with some really good sessions at the Chidambaram Cricket Stadium in Chennai, which have left the “heavier sweaters” amongst us completely soaked.
Regular changes of batting gloves and t-shirts are the norm, unless you’re Jenny Gunn aka “The Ice Queen” (she just doesn’t sweat!), and the girls are quickly learning how much we need to drink to stay hydrated.
With the late arrival of the Pakistan women’s team, we were invited to fill in and play their scheduled warm-up match on Friday night against New Zealand.
The ball behaved like we thought it would, zipping around under the floodlights, which made for a lively game from the seamers.
Good morning India pic.twitter.com/OtWP9B3Xgf
— Georgia Elwiss (@Gelwiss) March 13, 2016
We managed to restrict them to 130 bowling first, and thanks to another masterclass from Sarah Taylor, we were able to get over the line.
Not without a bit of a last minute wobble, but Nat Sciver was as cool as ever smashing the last ball towards the boundary to secure the one run we needed to win by four wickets.
The game and the manner in which we won was an important marker for us to set the tone of the competition. New Zealand have been playing some excellent cricket and we wanted to throw the first punch as it were, so we are happy we have been able to do this.
Saturday saw us play our second warm-up match, again against New Zealand, but this time batting first. We posted a below par 126, but thanks to the bowlers and some exceptional fielding we managed a win by 20 runs.
To get some proper tournament practice in, we then played a Super Over, which will happen if a game is tied during this WT20.
And I get to call this a job… Can’t wait to get to Chennai for the first leg of the next adventure! pic.twitter.com/mr4UusCLNp
— Georgia Elwiss (@Gelwiss) March 7, 2016
It was an eventful encounter with New Zealand batting first and posting 11, before Nat Sciver smashed the 12 needed in four balls, including a massive six over midwicket. Job done, and (technically) a 3-0 series win against the White Ferns!
Away from the cricket, we had a rest day yesterday and a few of us hoped to be able to visit a local temple.
Unfortunately no-one had the necessary clothing requirements to be allowed in, so being on the coast here in Chennai, we opted to head out to see the lighthouse.
We have our third and final warm-up match tonight against South Africa before we move onto Bangalore to play our opening group match against Bangladesh on Thursday.
You can follow our progress across all of the ECB’s media channels, and the game against Bangladesh on Thursday will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and BBC Radio from 9.30am, so make sure you tune in!
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Source: ECB