Women’s Cricket World Cup: England aim to lift mood in must-win game against India | Cricket News

Watch England’s must-win game in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup group stage against India live on Sky Sports on Wednesday from 12.30am; England have lost their first three games at the World Cup

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England wicketkeeper Amy Jones says the squad have held talks about their poor form at the World Cup

Amy Jones says England will enter their crucial match against India looking to fully support each other and keep the energy high, despite having lost three successive matches at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Wicketkeeper Jones was speaking after the reigning champions suffered a three-wicket defeat to South Africa at Bay Oval on Monday, with the Proteas chasing down their target of 236 with four balls to spare.

“It’s obviously disappointing, the start that we’ve had,” Jones said. “The mood has been pretty low at the end of the games.

“But, I think it’s been really good to get behind each other and come together as a group. We’ve definitely been able to pick ourselves up before every game so that will be no different for the match against India.”

One area that former England’s men’s captain Nasser Hussain has pulled England up on is their fielding across their three matches.

Against South Africa, they handed Laura Wolvaardt three lifelines on her way to what proved to be a match-winning 77.

Heather Knight’s side also dropped Deandra Dottin during the previous defeat against the West Indies, among other errors, and Jones says it’s something they are continuing to address and speak about.

“We spoke about that as a group, but also about not wanting to put a huge amount of pressure on the first opportunity that came in the next game,” Jones said. “We just spoke about how we wanted to be really positive and supportive of each other out there.

Knight: England need quick turnaround | Hussain critical of fielding

Heather Knight acknowledged England need to improve quickly if they are to maintain any hope of retaining the World Cup.

“We wanted to do the little things right; attacking the ball, fizzing it into me and getting some good energy going, hoping that the chances will be taken from that. We know that our skill level is good enough to take the chances, and then it was unfortunate that we missed a few again [against South Africa].

“With the games coming so quickly together, you have to look individually if there are any quick learnings that you can make and in terms of the whole team.”

The quick turnarounds continue as England must now step out onto the field against India. The must-win game takes place on Wednesday morning live on Sky Sports World Cup from 12.30am.

India come into the meeting having won three of their last four ODI matches, including beating the West Indies by 155 runs in their last outing in the competition.

England vs India

March 16, 2022, 12:30am

Live on

Keightley: The buck lies with me

England head coach Lisa Keightley admitted “the buck lies with me” and insisted the team are putting in the work to get themselves back into tournament contention.

“We haven’t really put our finger on it,” Keightley said. “We have fielded pretty well throughout the Ashes and took a lot more chances than we have.

“The last two days we trained really well and the girls have been up and about putting a lot of effort in. We just haven’t got the rewards in the games when it matters.

“I don’t really know to be sure, it is something that we’ll have to think about when we review after the World Cup.”

After three successive defeats, England know they need to win all of their remaining matches and also hope that other results go their way. The top four teams in the standings after the group stage will take part in the semi-finals.

“As a coach I take a huge amount of responsibility,” Keightley said. “It’s up to me to drive the team and get the wins on the board, that’s the job of the coach and we’re trying really hard – the coaching staff and myself – to get the players up and about.

“We don’t have to do too much; the players are pretty gutted, and they were gutted after the last match and wanted to bounce back and were unable to do it.

“But the responsibility and the buck lies with me and I’m happy to cop that, moving forward – I don’t feel any more pressure than what the players feel and I’m no more disappointed than the players.

“We came into this World Cup to play better than we have and we haven’t and it’s been frustrating, for myself and the coaching staff and frustrating for the players.

“We just for some reason haven’t clicked and we’re finding it really hard to do so, but we’ll keep fighting and we’ll keep training hard in between and talking to the players, it will be great to bounce back and come out against India and put the pressure on them.”

Watch every game of the Women’s Cricket World Cup live on Sky Sports World Cup (channel 404), with England’s meeting with the India live from 12.30am on Wednesday morning.