Georgia Elwiss is blogging exclusively for ecb.co.uk during the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in India. In her second instalment she reflects on meeting the Dalai Lama, fun and games on the team bus in Delhi and England winning their first two group games.
I’m very pleased to be reporting two wins out of two to kick-start our ICC WT20 campaign.
First up, Bangladesh in Bangalore. To say we have been well looked after during our time so far in India would be a massive understatement… In Bangalore we stayed in possibly the poshest hotel I have ever seen! Luckily for me, I had my sidekick Danni Wyatt in the next room with an adjoining door, which meant we didn’t even have to leave our beds to communicate! The curtains operated by a switch next to the bed and the bath itself was bigger than my bathroom! Enough said.
Game day was hot and humid and the nerves and excitement were really starting to kick in. We won the toss and chose to bat first, posting 157 with an excellent 60 from the captain, Charlotte Edwards. We felt like we were probably 20 runs short but were confident of defending the total, and ended up restricting Bangladesh to 115. Although we weren’t at our best we recorded a convincing victory which gave us momentum moving forwards.
What a stunning venue
Plus an #Eng win!#ShotOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/MWgVzRLPia— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 22, 2016
From Bangalore it was onto Dharamsala via a two-night stopover in Delhi. Those who didn’t play in the first match had a training session at the main stadium in the city centre. Unfortunately, due to peak-hour traffic, the 45-minute journey took over an hour and a half both ways. We played a filler game called “I went to the shop and bought….” The basic premise of the game is to guess the person’s theme of items they had “purchased”. Amy Jones came out victorious, as her theme was saying the word “umm” before each item. Gunners (Becky Grundy), Ali (Maiden), Robbo (Mark Robinson) and I got increasingly annoyed by this astute rule, as we were hungry, tired and couldn’t understand why her and Sals (Ian Salisbury) were allowed to buy items when we weren’t! Needless to say this game has now been banned!
The journey to Dharamsala began with a propeller plane which ignited severe panic in a few members of our team. Danni Hazell, Chris Sykes and Danni Wyatt all hate flying and vicious rumours were circling before the flight about the size of the plane and the turbulence that would occur from the mountains. In the end the flight was fine and the weather here is lovely. The views of the ground are incredible and although our bus journey up the mountain ended up being like a scene from wacky races, it is well worth the view.
We have been fortunate to play at some incredible stadiums as cricketers but I think this one in Dharamsala is the best. The backdrop of the mountain is just surreal and photos cannot do it justice.
We knew our second group game here against India would be a tough one and we were expecting a crowd, but I don’t think we anticipated the noise that one group of people could make. Of course they were shouting for India and it was certainly an experience, so loud we literally couldn’t hear ourselves think! We bowled incredibly well to restrict them to 90 and after a slightly nervous run-chase we knocked them off with one over to spare. It was really important for us to get the win and to keep building on our momentum throughout the group stages.
Following the win against India, we were hugely fortunate to get the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama the next morning, which was an amazing and thought-provoking experience. He gave a little speech on love and humanity and the girls left feeling very moved and thankful for the opportunity.
Time to rest up now before our game against the West Indies tomorrow evening. A win should secure us a place in the semi-finals so stay tuned to follow our progress!
Source: ECB