England's Nat Sciver-Brunt expressed her delight in her team's historic performance against Pakistan at the ongoing ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023. England defeated Pakistan by 114 runs in their final group game, breaking two records in the process. England's total of 213 for five was the first time a women's team had passed 200 in the tournament, while the 114-run margin was the biggest victory in ICC Women's T20 World Cups.
Sciver-Brunt played an outstanding knock of 81 not out off 40 balls and anchored a fifty partnership with Danni Wyatt before putting on 100 for the fifth wicket with Amy Jones. Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Charlie Dean also made crucial contributions with the ball, taking two wickets each as Pakistan's top order failed to fire.
"We targeted this game as a chance to show everyone as a team what we're about and I guess it being the last game in our group as well, it was a free chance to show off a bit," said Sciver-Brunt after the game. England's performance in the field was as impressive as their performance with bat and ball, meaning they go into the second semi-final on Friday on the back of four wins from four.
Head coach John Lewis, who has enjoyed an unbeaten start to life in the role, was happy with the records broken at Newlands. "Records are something that Lewy has definitely asked us to push. He is finding random records that we have beaten, not the standard ones. But it is important for us to be pushing ourselves and pushing our standards higher and higher," said Sciver-Brunt.
On the other hand, Pakistan's Nida Dar, who stood in as captain for the injured Bismah Maroof, admitted that Pakistan's batting was light without the skipper and middle-order batter Ayesha Naseem. Six Pakistan batters made scores under 10, with Tuba Hassan, the side's top scorer as she crashed 28 runs from 20 balls in the closing stages.
"There is disappointment for the team here and we were lacking from not having Bismah Maroof and Ayesha Naseem as two powerhouse batters and we know we are lacking with our batting, we didn't have that strength in our batting line-up," said Nida.
Despite her expensive day with the ball in hand, Nida took her 126th T20I wicket to move past Anisa Mohammed of the West Indies to become the highest wicket-taker in the format. "It's a milestone for me to be the top wicket-taker in T20s. But it is not the milestone I am aiming for, I want to do the best for my team and that will be my goal," the veteran all-rounder said.