England pacer Anya Shrubsole on Wednesday felt that getting a four-wicket win against India in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup has been ‘really nice’.
At Bay Oval, England ticked every box in terms of batting, bowling, and most importantly, fielding, to end their winless run in the tournament and get their first win in the World Cup.
The win was set up by off-spinner Charlie Dean’s career-best figures of four for 23 while Shrubsole did the early damage with two for 20 as India were bowled out for 134. Skipper Heather Knight led the chase of 135 with an unbeaten 53 while her deputy Nat Sciver made a quick 45.
“It’s been a while since we’ve won and I think we can’t make any secrets about that. It’s been obviously a tricky tour, but we came into this game basically knowing that we needed to win our next four games to give us a chance,” said Shrubsole in the post-match virtual press conference.
“So it’s really nice to get the win on the board to play well. But this is kind of one of four really that we need to win and we’ve managed to do it today and we’ll celebrate the win and then it’s about getting to Auckland and turning our focus to the New Zealand game,” added Shrubsole, who reached the milestone of 100 ODI wickets with the scalp of opener Yastika Bhatia.
Shrubsole, who was player of the match in the 2017 World Cup final when facing India at Lord’s, was extremely happy overreaching a century mark of 100 ODI scalps. “I’m really pleased. I think if kind of never really would have dreamed of hitting that when I made my debut. So, I’m pleased about that. But I’m most pleased about I guess being able to contribute to the team and I thought as a group we bowled really well.”
Shrubsole showered praise on Dean, playing just her second World Cup match and becoming one of the main architects of England’s win over India. Dean flipped the match in England’s favor when she dismissed Harmanpreet Kaur and Sneh Rana in a double-wicket maiden 17th over. She then trapped Pooja Vastrakar lbw and ended India’s misery by clean bowling Meghna Singh.
“I’m absolutely buzzing for Charlie. This is obviously the first World Cup. I think she is 20 or 21; to come and to bowl as well as she did in what was a really high-pressure game – two wickets in her first over and just really I guess backed up the early wickets that we’ve taken.”
“So much like I’m over the moon for Deano – she’s someone who’s really popular amongst this group – a seriously talented cricketer and hopefully is going to be taken wickets in World Cup for England over the years to come.”
