Nat Sciver: Inexperience cost England but Maia Bouchier impressive on debut

England’s stand-in captain also praised Mady Villiers for her performance in the field during England’s four-wicket defeat to New Zealand

England not at home in Hove as New Zealand bounce back to level the series

Nat Sciver believes England felt the absence of Heather Knight and veteran allrounder Katherine Brunt in their four-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the second T20I at Hove.

Knight and Brunt have made a combined 182 T20I appearances for England, scoring 1,840 runs and taking 118 wickets. However, the England captain has missed both matches against New Zealand with a hamstring niggle while Brunt was rested after taking 2 for 9 in the first T20I at Chelmsford.

However, while admitting England lacked on-field experience at Hove, stand-in captain Sciver was full of praise for her young side, singling out the performances of debutant Maia Bouchier and Mady Villiers.

Bouchier, batting at number six, scored 25 runs off 24 balls and shared a 44-run stand with Southern Vipers teammate Danni Wyatt. Villiers, meanwhile, had a hand in four wickets – running out Suzie Bates, taking the catches to dismiss Sophie Devine and Brooke Halliday, and dismissing Maddy Green caught and bowled.

"Maia in her debut game, coming out into the middle when we weren’t in a brilliant position, she batted brilliantly," praised Sciver. "She had a great Hundred. [She] was part of the Southern Brave side and batted in the middle and scored some crucial runs for them. We saw glimpses of that today. It’s always difficult to debut and play your shots and go with your gut; I’m sure she’ll grow into the role of batting in the middle.

^{Katherine Brunt (centre) was one of two big names missing for England at Hove}

"And Mady, we know she’s a brilliant fielder and a brilliant off-spinner. She seems to like this ground and she was brilliant as well. It was a slightly less experienced [team] but we are hoping Katherine and Heather will be back for the last game. Hopefully a bit more experience in the line-up will help us."

England struggled from the start against New Zealand, slipping to 26 for 3 inside the powerplay before limping to 127 for 7 thanks to productive middle-over contributions from Sophia Dunkley (21), Wyatt (25) and Bouchier. With the ball, they were let down by a couple of mistakes in the field, most notably when Sarah Glenn dropped Sophie Devine in the eighth over – the New Zealand skipper would go on to make a 41-ball half-century.

Assessing her side’s performance, Sciver continued: "To lose that many wickets in the powerplay, we would have been happy with 130 or 140, but unfortunately, we just fell away at the end of our batting innings and couldn’t get a partnership together that would have got us those 10 or 15 more runs.

"We were a little off with the ball, a few too many extras but I think fielding-wise we had a pretty good day. Unfortunately, a catch went down but I think it might have gone in the lights. We work hard on our fielding and making sure we give ourselves the best chance to take the half chances, the difficult chances, and making sure our basics are on point. I thought we were really good today and when we squeezed, we were creating chances. It was just unfortunate that chance went down."

With the series now tied at 1-1, England head to Taunton needing a win to clinch the series, a scenario Sciver is relishing given the wealth of international competitions, including the Ashes and a 50-over World Cup, on the horizon.

"Playing under pressure and playing in must-win games is really important for our squad, to be able to deal with pressure and make sure we can still perform under it," she said. "We want to play under pressure and win the games that mean the most. We’re really looking forward to Taunton."