After a loss against India in their first match at the tournament, England have come back strongly – winning seven matches in a row – to make the final.
On Tuesday, they got the better of South Africa in a closely-fought semi-final encounter which went down to the last over with Anya Shrubsole hitting the winning runs off the first delivery she faced.
Opening batter Tammy Beaumont comes into the final as the top run-scorer for England in the ongoing World Cup with 387 runs. Skipper Heather Knight, Sarah Taylor, and Natalie Sciver have also been in great form – with all three scoring over 300 runs each at the tournament.
One of the keys to the hosts’ success has been different players putting their hands up and delivering match-winning performances when required but Knight admitted that they haven’t put in a perfect team performance yet.
“We keep finding ways to win at the moment, we haven’t quite put the perfect performance together, we’d readily admit that,” she said.
“There’s still one game to go and if we put a perfect performance in, then, I’ll be a very happy captain.”
A capacity crowd is expected at Lord’s on Sunday with tickets being sold out. Speaking about that, the England captain said: “It’s great news.”
That moment when you reach a World Cup final at Lords! Couldn't be prouder of this group of… https://t.co/JERgNyrAH5
— Heather Knight (@Heatherknight55) July 19, 2017
It’s an opportunity to create history for India as they attempt to win the Women’s World Cup for the first time.
What will give the Indian team a lot of confidence is the fact that they defeated England during the league stage. They started the World Cup with four wins but had a bit of a hiccup when they lost successive league matches against South Africa and Australia.
Mithali Raj’s side came back superbly after those two defeats to beat New Zealand in what was a virtual quarter-final and then produced a sensational performance to get the better of defending champions Australia in the semi-finals.
The semi-final win was made possible thanks to an astonishing innings from Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored an unbeaten 171 from just 115 deliveries. She had a bit of an injury worry during practice but is likely to play on Sunday.
Ahead of the final at Lord’s, skipper Raj spoke about the 2005 final which pacer Jhulan Goswami and she were part of.
“For me and Jhulan (Goswami), it is very special because we are the only players from 2005 still with the team and for us it feels like going back to 2005,” she said.
“We are all very excited to be part of the World Cup final. We knew this tournament wasn’t going to be easy but the way the girls have turned up at every situation when the team needed!
“I’m so happy that the girls have given us an opportunity again to be part of the World Cup final.”
Sharing a laugh before the big day.
— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) July 22, 2017
Its important to stay relaxed and focused!!#WWC17 pic.twitter.com/HsziSnCqvy
Date: 23 July 2017
Time: 13:30 GST, 10:30 local, 9:30 GMT, 15:00 IST
Venue: Lord’s, London
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD
Full coverage on Sport360.com.
LIKELY ENGLAND XI: Lauren Winfield, Tamsin Beaumont, Sarah Taylor (wk), Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver, Fran Wilson, Katherine Brunt, Jenny Gunn, Laura Marsh, Anya Shrubsole, Alex Hartley.
LIKELY INDIA XI: Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Sushma Verma (wk), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.
