Charlotte Edwards was pleased to get England’s ICC Women’s World Twenty20 campaign off to a winning start, but insisted her side still had work to do after a 36-run victory over Bangladesh.
Captain Edwards made 60 at the top of the order as England women posted 153 for seven – a total their opponents never looked like chasing down.
However, while the result was rarely in doubt Edwards expects her side to improve with the ball and in the field after allowing Bangladesh to reach 117 for six – their highest total in this format.
“It’s always nice to get some runs and more importantly a win,” Edwards said.
“It was pretty tough – we need to work on getting a few more boundaries.
Great start to the tournament onto the next game on Tuesday up in Dharamasla V India #Eng
— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) March 17, 2016
“There is still some work to do on our bowling and fielding, but it’s a good start.
“I thought we fielded well but there’s room for improvement and obviously we’ve got a big game next against India.”
The tournament in India represents England women’s first under new Head Coach Mark Robinson, and Edwards believes the new coaching set-up has brought new belief following a successful tour of South Africa.
“They’ve brought a lot to the group, challenging us to go out there and express ourselves,” she added.
“I thought the girls did that well today; just a few improvements with the ball and I think that would have been an all-round good effort from us.”
Robinson echoed Edwards’ sentiments, and also expects the batters to maintain their aggressive approach throughout the 20-over allocation in future.
Here we go then! Good luck #Eng #WT20 https://t.co/zg3Mxb861W
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 17, 2016
Edwards and Tammy Beaumont ensured 44 came from the powerplay, while Danni Wyatt and Katherine Brunt blasted 35 from the last three overs.
However, Robinson wants to see an improvement during the middle overs.
“It’s a little bit frustrating because we’ve played really well at Chennai,” he said.
“We’ve had three tough warm-up games on a wicket that was really hard work and then today we had a better wicket and we went backwards a bit, we got a bit safe and we don’t want to be safe.
“We want to be braver and we lost our way in the middle, we lost our intent. That’s not how we want to play.
“With the ball we were steady but we lost our way with our decision making.”
Source: ECB