Date – Wednesday, 26th February 2020
Time – 2 pm (Local Time), 8:30 am (IST)
Venue – Manuka Oval, Canberra
England lost their first game of this World T20 with South Africa’s experienced line-up overpowering the English outfit. Ayabonga Khaka’s three-wicket haul kept England to 123/8. After taking 2 wickets with the ball, Dane van Niekerk’s 51-ball-46 trumped Nat Sciver’s half-century as she held one end together while Mignon du Preez, playing in her 100th T20I, smacked 15 runs off 11 balls to get them home. England would be licking their wounds and wondering what went wrong for them.
Thailand, on the other hand, showed a lot of their character in a delightful performance against the West Indies. On a spicy pitch of the WACA, they managed to play out their quota of 20 overs before having West Indies down at 27/3. Ultimately, the experience of the West Indies batting allowed them to knuckle down and knock off those runs required for victory. West Indies may have won the game but Thailand won a lot of hearts with this performance.
England needs to brush aside their losses against Sri Lanka in the practice game and South Africa and hope to pull out their best against Thailand. They desperately need a win against Thailand to think about qualifying for the next stage. Thailand will just look to apply what they would have learned in the last match to put in an even better performance against England.
England Vs Thailand – Head-to-Head
England has never met Thailand in a T20I match. This will be the first encounter, which adds a certain degree of unpredictability to the game.
However, England’s line-up is quite superior to the Thailand team. If they put in the hard yards, they should win this game easily and open their account in this tournament.
Form Guide
England – LLWWL
Thailand – LLWWW
(Last 5 completed matches)
England has lost once against India before losing to Australia in the tri-series, denying them a place in the tri-series final. The recent loss against South Africa has meant that they now have 3 losses in their last 5 matches, all to different opponents – Australia, India and South Africa. To add to that, they also lost a recent practice match against Sri Lanka. They will not be in the best of spirits at the moment as they look forward to changing their fortunes against an inexperienced Thailand side.
Thailand’s hot streak ended with a loss to Bangladesh in the qualifiers and they also lost the game against West Indies, putting up a brave fight. They would want to learn from their last game and push an England side that is low on confidence if they have to have any chances against them.
Teams
England Squad – England Squad – Heather Knight (captain), Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt, Kathryn Cross, Freya Davies, Sophie Ecclestone, Georgia Elwiss, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones (wicket-keeper), Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Lauren Winfield, Fran Wilson, Danielle Wyatt, Mady Villiers
England has a good mix of experience and fresh talent coming into the tournament. Amy Jones, while hitting a rough patch, can lay a solid platform for her side with Danielle Wyatt. Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver are very experienced all-rounders who can guide the middle order through the overs and continue to build from the platform provided by the openers. They also possess some strong hitters such as Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt and Fran Wilson who can provide the finishing touches. Their bowling line-up is built around the pace bowler Anya Shrubsole and the spinner Sophie Ecclestone. Much will depend on them along with the bowling of the all-rounders Heather Knight, Nat Sciver, and Katherine Brunt. Sarah Glenn had a decent outing in her first World T20 match. Freya Davies and Mady Villiers will hope to make their debut in the tournament.
Thailand Squad – Sornnarin Tippoch (captain), Nattaya Boochatham, Naruemol Chaiwai, Nattakan Chantam, Onnicha Kamchomphu, Rosenan Kanoh, Suwanan Khiaoto, Nannapat Koncharoenkai (wicket-keeper), Suleeporn Laomi, Soraya Lateh, Wongpaka Liengprasert, Phannita Maya, Ratanaporn Padunglerd, Thipatcha Putthawong, Chanida Sutthiruang
The Thailand team also has a bit of experience at the T20I level with 10 of their 15 players having played at least 30 T20Is. Naruemol Chaiwai and Nattakan Chantam, Somnarin Tippoch and Nattaya Boochatham form the batting core and have scored half-centuries in this format. Chanida Sutthiruang and Suleeporn Laomi are their main bowlers.
Players to Watch out for
Heather Knight (England) – The charismatic English skipper likes to lead from the front and should be playing a very important role with the bat and ball as she has been playing in the past. She can build long innings, having scored 3 half-centuries. Expect her to make a vital contribution while batting and bowling a useful spell for her side and picking up a few wickets. With 70 T20I matches under her belt, her experience will come in handy as England look to work through another tournament as one of the contenders.
Natalie Sciver (England) – Alongside her skipper, Natalie Sciver is equally skilled and experienced in guiding her team through the tournament. With her innovative strokeplay, especially the ‘natmeg’, a shot which became famous in the 50-over World Cup in 2017, she is capable of accelerating the scoring in the later stage of the innings in the company of the middle order. She has over 1200 runs including 5 half-centuries in this format and has found her lost form, scoring an important half-century in the last game.
Amy Jones (England) – Amy Jones had a great series against Pakistan in Malaysia before having a run of bad scores in the recently-concluded tri-series in Australia. She was the leading run-scorer in the 3-match T20I series against Pakistan scoring 2 half-centuries, including her career-best score of 89. However, her highest score since then has only been 23, in the last game against South Africa. She will look to end this lean patch on a batting-friendly surface at Canberra to get her team off to a good start with the bat.
Anya Shrubsole (England) – With her raw pace, Anya Shrubsole is the leader of the English bowling line-up. Her pace is what turned the game for England in the finals of the 50-over World Cup against India in 2017. With 93 wickets from 71 games, she is England’s top wicket-taker. She will look to rattle the Thailand batters with her raw pace and aggressive bowling.
Pitch & Conditions
The match is being played at Manuka Oval in Canberra, which is known for its high scores. Unlike other grounds used in the tournament, this ground is not new to Women’s T20Is. Some of the matches of the recently-concluded tri-series were played on this ground. There have been 9 Women’s T20I matches played at this venue to date. With England featuring in 7 of those games, they would know the conditions well. The average score batting first is 143 and teams batting first have won 4 matches while teams batting second has won on 5 occasions.
The temperature will be expected to remain between 13 and 27 degrees Celsius and will remain pleasant and sunny with some breeze throughout the day. These conditions will aid swing bowling. Toss may not be a deciding factor in the game.
We are expecting a cracker of a match. Follow us on Twitter for all the updates.
