England have already booked their World Cup semi-final spot but Tammy Beaumont is hoping to seize on one last chance to gather momentum for the business end of the tournament.
Sunday’s game against a New Zealand side who have already been knocked out may have the feel of a dead rubber but, after losing their last game to favourites Australia, it also represents a chance to recover some confidence.
A six-wicket defeat to their Ashes rivals, who chased successfully with nearly 10 overs remaining, acted as a leveller for a side who secured qualification with minimal fuss and there is one chance left to remove the taste of defeat.
Seeing off a talented New Zealand in Visakhapatnam would England allow to join Australia, South Africa and India in the final four with their heads held high, leaving more than mere points to play for.
“It’s about looking at the bigger picture and having that personal pride,” said Beaumont.
“I don’t think we’ve had that full 100-over performance that we’ve wanted in recent games and that’s something we’ll be highlighting and putting our own professional standards on.
“We’re incredibly motivated to keep putting in performances and putting in that hard work, just because we’ve already qualified it’s no different. We know how good New Zealand are and we want to get that momentum back going into a semi-final.”
Getting out of the group stage was seen as a minimum requirement for England when the competition started but the squad have shied away from that idea.
- Beat South Africa by 10 wkts
- Beat Bangladesh by 4 wkts
- Beat Sri Lanka by 89 runs
- No result v Pakistan
- Beat India by 4 runs
- Lost to Australia by 6 wkts
“We’ve never put a label on it, we’ve not put an expectation on ourselves,” said Beaumont.
“We’ve spoken about our processes and how we want to play our game. We’ve talked a lot about writing our own narrative and I think we’re just allowing everyone else to decide what is acceptable for this team to achieve.
“For us, if that means a semi-final or a final, we’ll be proud of what we’ve done but we’re certainly not done yet.”
Only two of the 15-strong England squad have yet to feature thus far, with experienced batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge and pace bowler Lauren Filer both hoping to get their first opportunity.
