‘For bowlers, it’s about defending rather than attacking’ – Jacob Oram

In a women’s Twenty20 International tri-series where the world record for highest team total was broken twice in a day, the onus will be on the bowlers to limit the run flow as they go into the second day of double-headers on Saturday, 23 June.

England take on South Africa in the first match of the day in Taunton before meeting New Zealand later in the day. That second match pits the side that posted 250 against the one that posted 216.

Jacob Oram, the New Zealand bowling coach, said the bowlers’ job would be to defend rather than attack.

“[England] have got a lot of power … so we’ve got to make sure we’re able to limit the run flow. It’s a good wicket here as well, short boundaries, good outfield, [it’ll be] a high-scoring affair, but we’re going to make sure we do what we can to limit what they get.

“In T20 cricket you can try and attack for a period of time, but if the batters get going and the runs start flowing, it’s all about defending really rather than attacking – so finding ways to stop the batters getting sixes and fours. Dot balls and ones are like gold.

“It’s about changing the pace, changing the length, the trajectory if you’re a spinner, and making sure the batter doesn’t get a beat on one line and one length.”

For England, the challenge will be to keep up the intensity for two matches. According to Sarah Taylor, their wicket-keeper batter, it will put their improved fitness to the test.

"We're fitter and stronger than we've ever been," she said. “It will be tough – the Kiwis are obviously strong opposition. We just have to try to look at it like a 40-over game each side.”

South Africa, meanwhile, have identified areas in which they want to improve.

“Fielding in particular is one of the areas where we’ve let ourselves down,” said Mignon du Preez. “We’ve created some opportunities and in such a short game you really must take even the 50-50 chances where, if we can have a moment of brilliance, we can swing the momentum of the match in our favour.”

Dane van Niekerk, the captain, had described the first day of the tri-series as a “real hiding” and her predecessor agreed it had been “an eye-opener”. Like New Zealand and England, South Africa too had to play an aggressive and attacking brand of cricket, du Preez said.

“We’ve seen that the game has grown tremendously and that it’s moved forward at a rapid pace and we need to decide whether we want to catch up and play the same brand of cricket or if we are happy to get left behind. After our discussions yesterday I can tell you that the team are definitely keen on moving forward.

“We need to get that belief back, that thing that says we know we are going to be able to do this,” she added. “That’s something that I’ve seen from a lot of the teams that we have come up against. They back themselves 100% percent and without fear of failure and that’s what we’ve got to do going forward.”