Kate Cross calls for calm under pressure situations as England brace themselves for ODI series against India.
Kate Cross wants England to focus on ‘being calm under pressure moments’.
T20Is as appetisers to an ODI main event seems like an upside-down perspective on whatever cricket feast an increasingly full international menu has to offer.
However, with a World Cup less than two months away, the three 50-over games against India that comprise the rest of the England Women’s summer represent just that for both teams.
In three of their five Twenty20 matches, India, the tournament’s host, easily defeated England, while England prevailed in two close games on the last ball.
Along with Alice Davidson-Richards and Emma Lamb, Kate Cross, who rejoins England’s ODI team after missing the T20Is, saw both positive and negative aspects of those wins, which the team will try to eliminate.
We won some really key moments under pressure and we managed to win two really close games under pressure,” Cross said. “That’s something that is talked about with this group, how we might not necessarily always win those moments, so they were two huge positives.
“If you think of the Edgbaston game, if we’d been in that really strong position to win it and then gone on to lose that game, then a lot more questions would be being asked. We won it, so that was great but equally we don’t want to be in those positions. We want to try and kill games sooner.
“Every cricketer that you talk to will be trying to do that, but mistakes are made along the way and pressure is put on you as a cricketer and teams are allowed to bowl well and bat well and take spectacular catches in the deep that change the momentum of the game.
“It certainly looked like we’ve looked calmer under pressure on Saturday, which is the sign of a team that’s moving in the right direction. The calmer we can be under those pressure moments, then the better we’ll be in those huge moments in World Cups and Ashes series and going down to the wire against India in a three-match one-day series.”