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Heather Knight described England’s three ICC World Twenty20 warm-ups, all victories, as like “absolute gold” after she helped to brush South Africa aside with bat and ball.
Knight has played in all three wins, the first two over New Zealand before today’s versus the Proteas in Chennai.
The results have left her brimming with confidence ahead of England’s tournament opener against Bangladesh in Bangalore on Thursday.
By playing three games already, Charlotte Edwards’ side have had ample opportunity to acclimatise to Indian pitches different to the ones they last played on during February’s victorious tour of South Africa.
“Our preparation’s been brilliant,” Knight told ecb.co.uk.
“These three warm-up games have been played on those slow decks. They are very different.
“You practice as much as you want but time in the middle is absolute gold out there. So we’re really happy with how it’s gone and everyone seems to be firing pretty well and ready to go.”
.@Heatherknight55 with 2 c&b!
Great hands diving to her left#SA women 69-4 (16)#WT20 pic.twitter.com/0FABBT1RkF— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 14, 2016
England won both the one-day and T20 series in South Africa 2-1.
Today they restricted their opponents to 101 for seven, Knight among three England bowlers to take two wickets.
Amy Jones’ 28 and 37 from Sarah Taylor then set up a position for Knight, with 13 not out, and Danni Wyatt to secure a comfortable victory with seven wickets and 3.3 overs in hand.
Knight thinks this was the best display of the three warm-ups, saying: “We’ve played a lot against South Africa recently and they’ve pushed us pretty hard.
“Today it was completely different conditions to over there and I think we adapted really well.
“The bowlers bowled brilliantly, really nailed our plans the best of the three games, so that’s really pleasing the way that we’ve improved in that from just the other day.
“Really pleased with that and looking forward to Bangladesh.”
Source: ECB