Win in India decider would be 'shift' for England

BBC News

2 days ago

Winning Tuesday's one-day series decider against India would help "shift" the narrative around the England women's team, says all-rounder Charlie Dean.England levelled the three-match series with victory in a rain-shortened match at Lord's on Saturday, leaving the contest tied at 1-1 going into the final match at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.Following their Ashes hammering by Australia in the winter, England won all six matches against West Indies at the start of the summer but were well beaten by India in the T20 series which followed."Losing the T20 series and the first game of the 50-over, it would feel like a bit of a shift," Dean said."To be able to pull that off would be something really special and would give a lot of girls a lot of confidence going to India."
Tuesday is England's last official fixture in the 50-over format before their World Cup campaign begins on 3 October against South Africa in India.A regular criticism of England of recent years has been their ability to win bilateral series outside of World Cups, only to lose pressure matches at the major tournaments.They lost to South Africa in the semi-finals of the 2023 T20 World Cup and exited last year's event at the group stage after crumbling in a winner-takes-all match against West Indies.Tuesday's decider will be as close as possible to such moments outside of the global events."We have seen bilateral series where done really but when come to the World Cup games or tournament cricket we have not had the momentum or been clinical in those pressure moments," Dean said."Any chance we can emulate that in bilateral series is perfect practice."Obviously we want to win, but even if we don't we can take those learnings, keep getting better and set ourselves up to have a good 50-over competition. That is the most important."No matter how the game goes tomorrow that we really reflect and learn from the situation."