13 March - Tauranga - England player Kate Cross pre-match press conference
Reporter: Kate, South Africa. A team that you obviously played in the warm ups a couple of games ago. What kind of threat do they pose and what would you be looking out for against them?
Kate: Well, obviously they've got Lizelle Lee back who's been in quarantine and missed that first game and didn't play against us in the warm up game. So we're obviously very aware of the way that she bats at the top of the order. And that's something that's going to be a big challenge for us, I think. But they've also been a team that when they're playing well, they’re quite a dominant team. And I think that's something that actually bodes quite well for us in terms of the things that we wanted to improve on. So we know that our bowling probably hasn't been a standard that we expect of ourselves of the unit that we've got, and kind of particularly in the wides that we've been bowling recently. So it'll be a good challenge, but I think it's going to be a really good game for us to get out there and I guess prove people wrong because we've not - so we've certainly not played the cricket that we want to yet.
Reporter: You mentioned the bowling maybe hasn't been at the standard that you would have liked so far, what kind of discussions have you had as a group since that defeat in Dunedin about bowling specifically?
Kate: I think it's just not going too far away from what our plan A is and what we do so well for so long and so often, and as a bowling unit for the past 18 months I think we've been pretty spot on a lot of the time and we've really adapted well to conditions and adapted well to teams that we've been playing against. And I think it's very unlikely that you're - the Australia game for example, It's very unlikely you get a day where myself Sophie and Nat are all going above sixes, so I think we actually bowled better against the West Indies, I think we probably let ourselves down a little bit in the field, which again, is going to be something that we're going to rectify on Monday. Make sure we bring in that energy and looking to be positive because I think sometimes when you lose cricket it's very easy to go and [inaudible 04:14]. Especially in big tournaments like this where there's a lot of eyes on you and a lot of scrutiny but I think if we can still play that really positive brand of cricket that we've played for so long now and then we can stand ourselves in good stead.
Reporter: Obviously the defense haven't gone your way but this is your first ODI World Cup, how has been your experience so far?
Kate: Yes, it’s a bit odd to say that I'm 30 years old and its my first World Cup, but it's been - It's been a strange one, obviously, because it's not really been the start that we wanted. And I think you come to these tournaments and you really want those big moments because you know that all eyes are on you. And we've not had that as a team yet and personally not had those moments myself yet. So I think it's just -I just want to make sure that I'm doing my role for the team as best as I can, and as long as I can. So but yeah, it's been brilliant. It's obviously great to tour New Zealand as well. It's such a gorgeous country. We've really enjoyed the places we've been to so far. And the Mount in particular, it's a favorite of a lot of the girls so it's been nice to be here for a couple of days. And we've got two games here back to back. So yeah, nice to spend some time in a part of a country that we love.
Reporter: After the previous game, was there any discussion of sorts for you to bat a little bit above as as an all-rounder as such?
Kate: Yeah, I've been getting in the captain there and telling her that I'll bat anywhere. If I can get myself into the single figures then I'm going to be very pleased with that.
Reporter: One more - with Anya, Katherine and you – you three have been the top wicket takers since the 2017 World Cup for England. But obviously there have been some quite a few quality fast bowlers waiting in your squad. How does that push the three of you to consistently keep performing especially in such a big stage, because there is Freya Davies waiting in the ranks as well.
Kate: I think as a bowling unit it's just really important that we remember why we've been so successful in the past 18 months and we probably might have gone away from those plans a little bit too soon. And you know you've got to bowl your best ball for as long as you can really in one day cricket. But yeah, Catherine and Anya have obviously got a record that speaks for itself and you know that they have been a perfect example of this in the World Cup final but you know that they'll come into their own when we absolutely need them. And that's again, an exciting thing for me is that we've not quite seen our bowling unit at its absolute best yet. So I think when we can start stringing performances together in terms of the batting unit and the bowling unit and the fielding unit together, then I think, like I said we can sound ourselves in good stead to start getting some wins on the board.
Reporter: Defending England you did say that the fielding that you guys have done in the last game? What's been the discussion around that because it's a very uncharacteristic England performance.
Kate: Yeah, that's actually something that I spoke about with the fielding group that I was with yesterday in training, but it is very uncharacteristic of us. And you know, we've kind of felt like it's been poor performances, but I think it's been just poor by our standards of what we set ourselves. But I think a lot of it is mindset, I think especially with fielding, it's probably the part of the game that everyone feels that they can impact, and I think when we're at our absolute best and we're committing to dive in and taking chances and trying to pull off catches - then that's when we are at our best as a unit. And I think we might just have gone a little bit away from that and probably taken our foot off the gas and maybe been a bit little bit tentative in the field. So for me, that's an easy win because you can switch your mindset and you know, it's certainly not a skill deficiency. I think we're absolutely one of the best fielding units in the world when we're at the top of our game so yeah, that's something that we spoke about and something that we're going to put right on Monday.
Reporter: You mentioned how easy it can be to kind of go down a bit of a hole when you are losing when you're not performing to the standards that you want. In that context. How nice is it to not be confined to a bit of a bubble like it has been over the last couple of years? How nice is it to be able to kind of get out and get away from cricket?
Kate: Yeah, again, when you've got a country and you've kind of got the back doorstep here it is a lot more refreshing. We still are confined. Obviously we're confined to our hotels and to not being able to go out to eat in restaurants and stuff. So I think there's still an element of that that might be getting a little bit overlooked from maybe people outside of the cricket environment who don't quite understand it. And we're pretty much two years now that we've been in these environments. So it's very strange as well to think that when we go back home there's absolutely no COVID restrictions, and there'll be no testing for it either. So it is a big part of the game. I think we've realized that from having to go through so much of it in the last few years that it is difficult and you need to have your ways of getting away from cricket and being able to kind of refresh yourself. And like I said, hopefully that's what Mount Manganui has done for us in the last couple of days, because we've had a rare day off, which was very, very nice.
Reporter: And if I can just ask you how you kind of get away from cricket or what do you do to I suppose, refresh and reset.
Kate: I have a podcast that I do, if anyone would like to listen to my podcast, it's called No Balls - with my friend Alex Hartley, so I actually find that really therapeutic because it's kind of me having a little bit of therapy and discussing cricket sometimes. And yeah, kind of working my way through it, but I'm also stupidly doing a master's at the moment. So that's been taking up a little bit of my time. So when everyone was on the beach the other day I was out doing some work. So yeah, it's one way of getting your mind off cricket. Maybe it's not the best way but I'm focusing kind of on the future