24 March - Christchurch - England player Katherine Brunt post-match press conference
Reporter: Back in the wickets today. I'm guessing you're just pleased that you've finally got the performance that you've been aiming for.
Katherine: Indeed, yeah. Yeah, it's been a while longer than I'd like to, for it to have gone on for but you know, that’s sport in and out of form. We've been away a long time things can creep upon you that you don't necessarily intend to happen. And it's just about, you know, training, working hard putting things right and going out and doing it again and I'm just like you said really happy to have contributed today.
Reporter: You're one of two members of the team that was part of the 2009 win, so this is your second time being a defending champion. How is it different and are you feeling more pressure this time round?
Katherine: Yeah, but both very, very different - Very different stages in my career. Certainly. It certainly felt like back then we were most certainly right up the best team in the world. First or second and for a long time. And now obviously, many years later, the world is caught up and there are some brilliant teams around the globe now and some brilliant players have come out of the woodworks some have gotten better and better and better. And that's the credit to the sport and where we're going and the professionalism of it. So everything is a lot harder now – the competition is very strong and you know, not one game is laid back game. Everything has to be taken very seriously. And that's, you know, like I said, that's a credit to the game and where it's come.
Reporter: And I'm not sure how much you were part of the batting conversations but we had it that you needed to chase it down in 19.3 overs to beat India's run rate. Was that something that was in conversation?
Katherine: Did we do that?
Reporter: Yes.
Katherine: Excellent. Well done. No we were aware of that. But obviously the first goal is to win the game. And you can't worry too much about the outside stuff, and certainly there and certainly something you’ve got to for but you have to get that platform as you saw down there. She bowled brilliantly upfront, and not something we're not unaware of. We know she can bowl like that, when she's on she is on and she certainly had the pitch and conditions to do that in so there has to be some level of respect and getting yourself in before you can blast off I guess like Dan did and she timed it perfectly as you said, but yeah, we were definitely aware of that. Not quite trying to do to the table. Yeah, we were trying.
Reporter: Just how much confidence can you take for your first comfortable victory cause there are a couple of ones that were right down to the wire but this one was much more straightforward.
Katherine: Yeah, as you know during COVID times, we can't go to the hairdresser and get our hair done, so the gray hairs are emerging and we don't wish to add to the gray hairs, so we would like some nice comfortable wins. Today was a special day - one we've been really aiming towards getting a complete game in with bat, ball and the field and we will definitely take a lot of confidence from this and we will keep trying to gain momentum and that's you know what we've been trying to do the whole series and sometimes you got to be - you're on, sometimes you're off. But you do keep counting up, you do keep giving your best and you're all for the team and to get better in this tournament. So yeah, we'll take a lot of confidence for sure.
Reporter: What have you made of the change from the first few games where there were quite a lot of fielding mistakes, to a much more clinical performance today?
Katherine: Yeah, I mean, it's a strange one, isn't it because no one means to drop, but it's part and parcel of sport. You do some iconic things and you do some really horrific things where you wish you could crawl into a hole and hide but that's not possible. You're out there in front of millions of people and you train like hell to perform well and to perform really well when it matters. But, sometimes this stuff happens and it can spread like a disease. It's like you just see one person drop it you're like, oh God, why'd you do that? And then you drop it and you're like – what! So, we are certainly working hard for that not to be a thing. And we've seen some absolutely brilliant catches in this tournament which is awesome. And we were eager to add to that highlight reel and did that last week. So like I said we're gaining confidence every day, every training session, every game we play and we hope to just keep trying to deliver that complete game.
Reporter: Can you put your finger on what it was that wasn't clicking for you before this match? And then sort of on the flip side, did you do anything specific to turn it around yourself?
Katherine: Is that for me personally?
Reporter: Yes.
Katherine: Yeah. I have. Yes. And I've been struggling for a bit of form, which is obviously not anything that no one can't work out by now. We've been on tour a long time, gaining 11 weeks away from home and a long, long way from home and this is something I don't think any cricketer - female cricketer certainly will ever have done, and probably won't do in their careers if they play a long career. And so you're figuring out how best to work things and normally after a tour, you go home, you go back to the nets, you fix things. You have that that bit of time before you go back on tour, and we didn't - we haven't had that. So we had a good Ashes, and had that little low of time and then came back into it and got into bad habits and all that I was pointing out specifically what that technical thing was - I have spotted it. Thankfully, there is something wrong. And I worked really hard on it yesterday in the nets, I took it right down to the bare bones of it and drilled a lot yesterday to try and be able to turn up today and make it as natural as possible. So I'm certainly going in the right direction.
Reporter: Just a follow up on what you said. Is that the moment when you celebrated the first wicket, was that kind of all sinking in, the work that's gone in -the tough times on tour? Is that just a relief at that point of time, just talk to us a little bit about that.
Katherine: Yeah you kind of nailed it yourself. Yeah. you have some females who are quite emotional at this point in the tour, just missing home and home comforts and being able to switch off from all the excitement and anxiety and the stress that this role comes with because it doesn't and you know, when you're having to turn up every day and keep turning on a brave face, it's difficult - so yeah, that wicket certainly brought a lot of feelings out of me and like I said, I felt a lot of relief. Almost too much – now I can switch back on and bowl another ball. So yeah, keeping it together this whole time and hoping that one day it would click and today was that day.
Reporter: My question was, like you said like your form wasn't great, but both you and Anya had been bowling well in some matches, and a lot of catches were dropped off your bowling which is something which isn't reflected in the figures. And there was a little bit of criticism of fielding the opening bowlers - so How satisfying is it that Anya has performed well in the last two games and you've performed so well today and you've been performing well for more than a decade now. So what's the kind of satisfaction that you get when you play so well and also have the wickets to show for it?
Katherine: Yeah, I'm a really competitive person and I want so badly to contribute every game in any way - bat ball or a catch or run out or something. Just always want to be involved. So when you're not, it genuinely feels rubbish. Anya’s been doing a great job up front. And it is quite often that one when one of us are on the other one isn't. But when we're both on obviously that's what we're aiming to achieve. And yeah, I do feel great about this day, obviously. So long, too long time coming. But yeah, you've got to - it's about how I would ride the last games and how we'll get out of them without too much damage. So we have played on some brilliant batting tracks, and it's been hard to not overly criticize myself. In this situation. I'm sure a lot of the seam bowlers in this tournament will have done that. It's hard to just say, Oh, you've had a rubbish day because you’ve not got a wicket, but you've actually bowled really well, and the batters have performed really well – you’re bowling on a very tricky slow good for batting surface and you got quick outfields and don't forget you only have two fielders out so it's a very difficult challenge in itself and you got to not be too hard on yourself. But this is sport and the level that we're at – and we’re only getting older and it's getting harder so -
Reporter: Not sure how much of say you had in selection but just wanted to know the logic behind playing MR Emma Lamb today, was it like to just lengthen the batting order and will we see her play in the next couple of games as well?
Katherine: I don't have any say in the selection now. But I definitely would say it's to lengthen the batting. And certainly it's- it’s obviously very difficult as you know, and when you see a green seamer you want to bowl lots of seam as in - it's absolutely nothing on Charlie Dean. She's played absolutely fantastic. IT was sad to leave her out today but on a wicket like that because our bowlers have been going so well. It was safer probably to bring in another batter and lengthen the batting a little bit against Pakistan today on that wicket. So it's a good call for the day and as for the future, I actually don't know. Obviously, I won't get to know that kind of information but I assume we'll read each wicket as we come across them - Wellington nets different wicket we've not been there before. So we'll have a look at that wicket and go from there. If it's a turning wicket Charlie might come in, if it's something else then we'll look to do something else - so yes, game by game, wicket by wicket.
Reporter: England has talks a lot about kind of managing your workload. And perhaps we weren't expecting you to play every one of the group stage games but you have - was that the original plan and if not kind of what's been the discussion about that and how are you feeling?
Katherine: Yeah, every time I go on every series we’re playing - there's obviously talk of how to manage me and what my workloads will look like. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I was obviously in the Ashes, less about the management of the overs and I actually picked up a little niggle that I had to make sure I didn't turn into something big for this tournament. So that was about being smart in the Ashes. You know, had they been must win games it would have been different but yeah, we certainly talked about missing games for this tournament but as you've seen - every game has pretty much been a must win game and I do feel good. I feel fine. I don't always feel 100% That would be weird of me to say. But you know, if there's no dramas, there's no risk to anything. So if the opportunity presents itself, then yeah, that would have been taken, but as it is, I'm all right and good to go.
Reporter: Katherine, how have you managed the frustration emotions that you felt over the past two or three weeks. Going with less than not performing to your usual high standards is that something you've specifically focused on coming up?
Katherine: That would be great, buy that in abundance. In lots of different ways. Trying to keep a smile on your face is good and all the time you don't - you're not at cricket. When I'm not at cricket. I try and do something I enjoy. Whether it be just watching Netflix and completely just not thinking about cricket, or a phone call back home and speak to the family and get them to make – you know, lighten up basically but - one lovely thing that happened the other week actually, while we were at the mountain Maunganui and Tammy Beaumont, our teammate, she got all our family members to send some messages and photos of some of our best times together and got some messages on the back of that. Even though it was a bit of an emotional evening. It was really sweet and I think just a really lovely thing to have done and gave everyone a bit of a smile and a bit of a spark into the next training sessions and we all had a bit of a laugh and a giggle and that was just a really good thing for her to do and Yeah, and actually we've been winning since so well done Tammy.