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ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T20

February 26, 2020

Heather Knight

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

England - 176/2, Thailand - 78/7

Q. It must be pretty special. Tell me how that felt, Heather.
HEATHER KNIGHT: Yeah, really nice. Obviously in a bit of a tricky situation being two down quite quickly. So me and Nat tried to stay really calm and just get a partnership together really and try to accelerate at the end, which we obviously did. Yeah, it just really plays in. It's been a while since I've been anywhere near 100 in T20 cricket, so nice to kind of finally do the business of getting T20.

I'm really pleased how my batting has improved in that area, and it's not often I've outscored Nat. I think I'll be on her back the next few days because she's often the one on the other end outscoring me.

Q. You mentioned the transformation in T20. Any particular changes you've made or any changes you've noticed in your own batting?
HEATHER KNIGHT: Just trying to score around the ground really. That's the thing I've tried to really develop. Probably didn't score all around the ground today. There's a lot on the leg side, trying to get over square leg. Yeah, particularly my power hitting at the back end, making sure. Because I've played that role at sort of 6, 7, where you go in and have to hit the ball hard from ball one.

So I think having a spell at that stage in the order is really where I hit my power hitting and sort of scoring quickly at the back end, which was nice to do. Obviously went a little bit higher up the order, and you get to face a few more balls.

Q. Something about Canberra. You made all your T20 half centuries here. What is it about this venue?
HEATHER KNIGHT: I think it suits my game quite well. It's generally quite skiddy, comes on nicely, and you get really good value for the shots. Yeah, I just seem to like it. Yeah, I'd love to play here all the time. We've got another game here to cash in and put in another good performance in this World Cup.

Q. You seemed keen to come back for the second on the first ball of that last over. You couldn't get back. Were you slightly concerned you might run out of time to get that three figures?
HEATHER KNIGHT: Not really. I wasn't too worried about it. Nat was more worried about me getting it than I was. I just wanted to get as many runs as I could for the title. But, yeah, really nice feeling. I pulled out in the 90s in T20 cricket, not internationally, but domestic a few times, so it's nice to finally get the three figures.

Q. Just on the second half of that game, when it pans out again like that that you clearly are going to win and win quite comfortably, how much is sort of self-motivating yourself as a team in the middle of that last ten overs to not slip in intensity, knowing how important net run rate and things might be in this group?
HEATHER KNIGHT: Yeah, it's cricket. We talked about that when we went out. We wanted to, first and foremost, win the game, but we wanted to play our standards, our fielding standards, our bowling standards. Sometimes it can be hard, but it's on the individual to make sure we uphold what we want to do as a side and not getting sloppy.

I thought the performance was pretty good. Yes, sometimes tricky, those games against countries you expect to win. They're not always the easiest to go out and win. So really delighted we put in a really strong performance. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to bowl them out, but I thought the bowling performance was really clinical.

Q. Heather, you spoke yesterday about not being fearful in this campaign, and you had the test of that today. Did you speak about that specifically with net when you were out there, and how nervous were you when you were 2 for 7?
HEATHER KNIGHT: I was nervous for the game actually. Obviously, a big game for us. But I tend to play better sometimes when I'm more nervous. Yeah, it was just about trying to stay calm. We knew there were going to be opportunities to score, myself and Nat. Generally we score reasonably quickly when we get in. Yeah, it was just about trying to build a partnership and get us to a good title. It can be quite easy to sort of panic in that situation, but the way we want the openers to play, they're bound to get low scores at times because we want them to be aggressive and take the game on.

So for us in that middle order, if it does go wrong, which it sometimes will, to try to rebuild that and get the platform to go again at the end.

Q. Did you ever have that thought today of this could go horribly wrong? Did you allow that thought to form?
HEATHER KNIGHT: No, I tried not to. You can't really have doubts in T20 cricket. That's when you get yourself in trouble. Whatever you do, you've got to commit to it. If things don't go right, if you know you've committed to it, then you can sort of live happy. So, yeah, I didn't let myself entertain that thought today.

Q. There seemed to be a significant push with you and Nat from round about the 13th over. Was that conscious you got to that point and thought, right, we need to crack on here?
HEATHER KNIGHT: Yeah, obviously, we needed to expand the partnership quite a lot because that's what we haven't done so far in the World Cup. We haven't had those big partnerships. So once we sort of got what we knew was going to be a good title hopefully, we just decided to have a bit of fun, try and take the game on.

Probably tried to hit a few balls a little bit too hard, a little bit too much pace with the wicket being a bit patchy. Yeah, we just decided to have a little bit of fun and try to hit some boundaries.

Q. You said after the South Africa match that you had a sleepless night. Will you sleep well tonight?
HEATHER KNIGHT: Hopefully, yeah. The hamstrings got a few tears in them. Yeah, I'm sure I'll have a good night's sleep. We've got a day off and another game against Pakistan. Sometimes the night games you have, win or lose, it can be quite hard to sleep after, especially the close ones like the South Africa game. So, yeah, hopefully have a nice sleep tonight.

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