England’s comeback in the 2022 edition of the World Cup will go down as one of the greatest comebacks ever. Heather Knight said that she was dazzled by her team’s performance and the character they have shown on the field.
Down and out after three games. Yet, the defending champions manage to find a way to make a wonderful comeback in this tournament. From the fourth game onwards, the sword was hanging over their head. One slip could have made sure that they were out of the tournament. But they managed to pass all the hinders and played some brilliant cricket on their way to the finals.
In the semi-final, they defeated South Africa, which was threatening from day one. And the manner England did it in was way more impressive, although they got some help from the South Africans as they dropped Danielle Wyatt five times. However, Alyssa Healy put the mockers in England’s magical run and took the opportunity away to defend their title from 2017.
Pushed hard
Despite not being able to defend their title, Heather Knight was proud of her team since the group stage, when they were required to win every single game to qualify. “I think we can take a lot of pride in what we have done as a group; the character and resilience shown from this group after those first three games when we were in a pretty tough situation are remarkable”, she said.
“We managed to turn things around but unfortunately, it was one win too many for us.”
A trophy would have been better
Nat Sciver, who scored 148 in the final, and was the one who was standing between Australia and the trophy, added: “Ourselves as a team being pushed and still be able to make it to the final, we can be really proud of ourselves.”
Sciver admitted that going one step further would have been even sweeter. “It is nice to end with a good score, but it would have been nicer to have a trophy but I guess it was too much in the end.”
The next challenge for the English team is the Commonwealth game which takes place in England in the upcoming summer, where they have been drawn in the same group as New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
Photograph: ICC
