The shot went for four and brought up a 29-ball fifty for Sciver-Brunt but she was far from done and her side will assert collectively that neither are they as they head into a semi-final against either South Africa or New Zealand on Friday. She pulled the next ball for another boundary then advanced on the next, clearing the fence at deep cover.
“To put the pressure on them as much as we could with the bat and the ball and in the field, that’s something that we’ve been looking to do over this tournament but not quite got it all right so far, I think that was pretty good, ” Sciver-Brunt said. “I think everyone’s got the confidence that we can repeat that and hopefully get one step further.
“Previously in the tournament I think we’ve been building up to a performance like this. We sort of targeted this game as a chance to show everyone as a team what we’re about and, it being the last game in our group as well, a free chance to show off a bit and do the things that we do really well.”
“People can’t repeat every time,” Sciver-Brunt added. “I mean, cricket’s a weird sport, things happen and someone could get a duck tomorrow that got runs today, but I guess that’s why as a batting group and as a bowling group we’re really strong and especially have the depth and on any day we’re confident that someone will stand up.”
An injury depleted Pakistan missing Bismah Maroof (groin) and Ayesha Naseem (hamstring) didn’t help themselves with a sloppy fielding performance and three of their wicket-takers leaked 40-plus runs each.
As complete as the performance was, England know they need a double-encore.
“To be the best in the world, you have to beat the current best in the world and Australia have been very consistently at the top of their game for a really long time,” Nat Sciver-Brunt said. “At the moment we’re trying to focus on ourselves and not look too outwardly at other teams. In the past, we’ve probably done that quite a lot and it’s not really worked out for us.
“As a group, we are working towards wanting to be number one in the world. But the way we’re doing it is the most important thing. And the way that everyone is really brought in and believes in the way that we’re playing will win us games will win us tournaments, and I think that’s the most important thing.”