We weren't at our best: England captain Sciver-Brunt "hugely disappointed" after semi-final exit

Guwahati (Assam) [India], October 29 (ANI): England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was "hugely disappointed" after their heartbreaking defeat in the Women's World Cup semi-final against South Africa, and admitted that her side wasn't at its best when it needed to be at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

At the beginning of this month, South Africa and England squared off in their group-stage opener. At the same venue, South Africa was completely outclassed by England, bundling out on 69 in 20.4 overs and lost by 10 wickets. Towards the end of the month, South Africa returned to the Barsapara Cricket Stadium and took revenge for the early upset.

Captain Laura Wolvaardt engineered a flamboyant 169(143) laced with 20 boundaries and four towering maximums. With the ball right-arm quick, Marizanne Kapp scalped figures of 5/20 in her seven-over spell to power South Africa to their first World Cup final. Sciver-Brunt didn't mince her words while admitting South Africa was the better side.

"Well, what an incredible two innings from South Africa. I think we ran our best today, and I suppose to beat the best teams, you have to. You have to put a whole game together. We didn't do that today, and we're obviously hugely disappointed. It will take a bit of time to sink in, but yeah, just disappointed, I'd say," Sciver-Brunt said in the post-match presentation.

After Wolvaardt's explosive 169 propelled South Africa to a daunting 319/7, Kapp struck twice while Ayabonga Khaka scalped once to leave England threadbare at 1/3. From that point, captain Sciver-Brunt and Alice Capsey forged a 107-run partnership to pull England from a precarious situation. The English skipper admitted that she believed that they were in the contest with that partnership.

"Yeah, definitely (if England felt they were back in the game after the triple strike). I also think during the powerplay and afterwards, we didn't, I suppose, let the game go too far. We were pretty happy with the control that we had. We knew a wicket at one end would make some inroads, which we did, and then we'll see if they get another partnership together. Obviously, she (Wolvaardt) had the best of the conditions. She knew what she was doing and really took advantage," she said.

Kapp returned to the attack and broke the 107-run partnership by removing Capsey on 50 (71). Sciver-Brunt followed her footsteps and returned to the dressing room with 64 (76), leaving the floodgates open. England collapsed to 194 in 42.3 overs and crashed out of the tournament.

"Kappy bowled some brilliant deliveries. And yeah, I mean, obviously, with the start that they had with the bat, we wanted to emulate that, but yeah, it wasn't as easy as just going out and trying to bat the way that Wolvaardt did. Obviously, it's not ideal to lose three very quick wickets. So yeah, that made the chase difficult from the start, but I think the way that Capsey and I, I suppose, put together a partnership, showed that we were up with where the South Africans were in their first innings. So yeah, we obviously needed to do it for a lot longer than we did in the end," she added.

Following the conclusion of their campaign, Sciver-Brunt hopes to apply their learnings from the tournament going forward and return to the showpiece event much stronger.

"I think we're a different side, certainly, from then, and we've learned a lot about ourselves. Obviously, this will hurt, but hopefully in time we'll be able to take the learnings from it and move forward because we've made some great strides so far in quite a short space of time. But I think it's really exciting where we can go. Obviously, to beat the best teams, you have to really be at your best. And yeah, hopefully we'll come back stronger the next time," she concluded. (ANI)

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