Natalie Sciver: Stakes are high and England must raise our game against dangerous India

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Natalie Sciver22 November 2018

It doesn’t matter how many of them you play, you never quite get used to playing in games like the one we have tonight in Antigua — a World T20 semi-final against India. The stakes are high, with a place in Sunday’s final on the line.

The road here hasn’t necessarily been simple. We had two games in three days in St Lucia at the weekend and entered the first, against South Africa, not actually realising that other results meant defeat would send us home. Luckily we bowled superbly and got the win that secured our semi-final spot.

It was a good night’s work, as Anya Shrubsole (right) bagged a hat-trick and I took three for four from four overs. I’m really pleased with how I’m bowling, stepping into the injured Katherine Brunt’s shoes. I made some changes to my action before the tour and am feeling a lot more confident – my action is more consistent and I know that I’m not going to fire it down the legside!

The second game, against the West Indies, had an atmosphere like no other I’ve played. We’ve played in front of bigger crowds, like last year’s World Cup final against India at Lord’s, but never one so loud, raucous or one-sided. There were about 30 English people in the ground, all of them our families, trying their best to make a bit of noise but they were up against it!

The support they received was incredible and their captain Stafanie Taylor said it was the biggest crowd they’ve had for a home game. Globally, support for the women’s game is growing and to come to the Caribbean and see a crowd like that is testament to that growth. It’s great for women’s cricket and great for us – especially the younger girls – to have experienced. We lost, which set up the game against India who played very well to win Group A ahead of Australia, but we learnt plenty. We didn’t bat well up top but were bailed out by Sophia Dunkley, who smashed it in her first international innings, and Anya, who is now an all-rounder, although she won’t like me putting pressure on her to score runs like that. We did ok with the ball up top but some dropped catches towards the end which helped them win. We know that tonight we have to be more composed under the pressure of a big crowd.

The day after was a bit more of an ordeal. The ICC organise charter flights between islands for the teams and officials, which is incredible. The trouble is, the departure times are a bit loose. We spent hours at the airport then, just as we were approaching the runway to take off, the pilot announced he hadn’t filled out some paper work, which apparently were the fees to the airport. An hour later we were finally taking off. Our 39-minute flight eventually landed seven hours late!

Our preparation since being here has been excellent. We have trained under lights because our game tonight is late and have the advantage of being able to watch Australia play West Indies first, so we can get a sense of the surface and what’s a good score. We like to get down early and have a net but will be keeping an eye on that match, which should be very entertaining. We can’t, however, look further ahead than our own game. India are incredibly dangerous. Their best batters, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, put big totals on the board then they have a bowling attack with just one seamer that is superb at restricting totals. Our batters all feel in good touch but haven’t quite clicked. We will need to be at our best. If not, we’ll be heading home.

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