“It’s a bitter pill to swallow for few of us now, sad for the tournament,” says Heather Knight

Captain Heather Knight hopes that the called off match due to rain which washed out their “gutted” team would, in turn, lead to a rule change that would provide provision for reserve days in future events of the Women’s T20 World Cup. As the weather forecast was predicted, there were heavy rains at SCG due to which semi-final match against India was abandoned.

 

 

The England fans were extremely disappointed. England’s opening match defeat over South Africa seemed to cost them heavy as they ended up second in the charts. They played brilliantly against Thailand, Pakistan and West Indies, winning all 3 matches. However, the canceled match eliminated them from the finals.

“They’re the rules that everyone signed up to,” Knight said of the absence of a reserve day.

“You’d hope now that there has been this situation and the game tonight is potentially going to be rained off as well, so you’d hope now there is going to be a rule change and moving forward, no other team will have to experience going out of a World Cup purely because of rain. Hopefully, it changes.

“It’s gutting. You put in a lot of hard work. There’s not a lot we can do about it..we’re just going to try to move on but it’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow for a few of us now.”

 

 

England was hopeful as they arrived at the semi-finals. But they left in major disappointment.

While frustrated on a personal level, Knight believed that the tournament provided a new benchmark for the women’s game.

“It’s sad for the tournament. You’ve got four really good teams competing, hoping to play some really good cricket. That’s taken away from us but I’m sure the final will be a great event. It’ll be a great day and game for the sport. I’ll be there as a fan. It has been a brilliant tournament, which has made it even more of a shame that we lost today.”

“Today is disappointing but it won’t take too much shine off where the sport has gone and you see if the money is put into publicizing it that people do want to come and watch.”