Georgia Elwiss is blogging exclusively for ecb.co.uk during the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in India. In her third instalment she looks back on their matches in the group stages, experiencing the fascinating Indian culture during Easter, and what it means to face old rivals Australia in the semi-finals.
It’s been a real whirlwind since our group matches in Dharamsala, but I’m very happy to say that I’m now reporting from Chennai and we are safely through to the semis!
During the group stages we played some great matches, a couple of which were a little bit too close for comfort against India and West Indies, so it was really lovely to put in a good performance against an up and coming Pakistan team. We needed to win to top the group and it was nice personally for me to feature in the starting XI for that match. We knew Pakistan would be a tricky opposition on the slow, low pitches out here in India, so it was a joy to watch the skipper Charlotte Edwards hit a very accomplished 77 not out batting first.
In reply, we took early wickets and Pakistan never looked likely to chase down our total, with us eventually we bowling them out for 85. Both Lottie and Nunny (Katherine Brunt) reached milestones during the game, scoring over 2,500 runs and taking 50 T20I wickets respectively, which are brilliant achievements.
It was a fantastic feeling to know that we’ve made the semi-finals and now here we are in Delhi ready to play the old enemy Australia! I think in tournaments like this it’s really important you don’t dwell on what’s gone previously. We know we haven’t played our best cricket in the group stages but we have got four wins out of four, and more importantly momentum going forward. It’s now important to learn and build on that for this massive game.
Lots of preview filming going on with #Eng women in Delhi this morning #Semis #WT20 pic.twitter.com/EpmsGSr4vk
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 29, 2016
Off the field we’ve been lucky enough to experience some amazing Indian culture while over here, and on Easter Sunday the hotel put on a massive buffet and party by the pool to celebrate. It was great to get into the spirit and celebrate with the locals. They are all so enthusiastic and love their cricket and it’s great that we can bring so much joy into their lives by playing the game we all love.The amount of selfies we have to pose for everywhere we go is quite ridiculous – it’s like we are rock stars!
We arrived in Delhi after a long day of travel yesterday evening and we have a training session this afternoon before and early night ready for the big showdown tomorrow.
It’s live on Sky Sports and BBC Radio at 10am so make sure you tune in and get behind us.
The girls are all really excited and raring to go… Bring it on!
Source: ECB