Katherine Brunt keen to avoid more grey hairs as England target comfortable wins

Katherine Brunt believes England will take a lot of confidence from their nine-wicket victory over Pakistan at the Women’s World Cup – but she insists they will continue to strive for “that complete game”.

The reigning champions moved a step closer to reaching the semi-finals and are now targeting a fourth straight win despite losing their opening three matches.

Heather Knight’s side breezed through the Pakistan batting line-up, bowling them out for just 105 before chasing down the target inside 20 overs.

Having initially struggled in the tournament, Brunt cut a different figure in Christchurch, taking a wicket with the first ball of the match on her way to three for 17, and she believes the victory made it a “special day” for England.

“As you know during Covid times, we can’t go to the hairdressers and get our hair done, so the grey hairs are emerging and we don’t wish to add to the grey hairs so we would like some nice comfortable wins,” the 36-year-old said.

“Today was a special day and one we’ve really been aiming towards, getting a complete day with bat, ball and in the field and we will definitely take a lot of confidence from this and we will keep trying to gain momentum and that’s what we’ve been trying to do the whole series.

“Sometimes you know you’ve got to be on, sometimes you’re off, but you do keep turning up and you do keep giving your best for the team and to get better in this tournament so we will take a lot of confidence for sure.”

The result lifts England into the top four for the first time in the tournament ahead of their final group game against Bangladesh in Wellington on Sunday.

England struggled with fielding mistakes in the first few matches, making a number of crucial drops and missed chances in games that could have gone either way, but put in a much more clinical performance against Pakistan.

“We’ve seen some absolutely brilliant catches in this tournament which is awesome and we were eager to add to that highlight reel and Heather (Knight) did that last week, so like I said we’re gaining confidence every day, every training session every game we play so we’ll keep trying to deliver that complete game,” Brunt said.