England have won their past two matches in the group stages to climb up to fifth and with Pakistan and Bangladesh left to play, they are in a strong position to finish in the top four
Just a few days ago, England's title hopes were in tatters following a run of three straight defeats and an early exit from the 2022 Women's World Cup loomed for the defending champions.
However, after recording back-to-back wins over India and New Zealand, Heather Knight's side have climbed up to fifth in the table – level on points with fourth-placed India – and are now in a strong position to reach the semi-finals with only Pakistan and Bangladesh left to play.
They made hard work of their victory over New Zealand, collapsing from 176 for 4 to 196 for 9 while chasing 203 and banking on No.11 Anya Shrubsole to see them over the line. But after securing the two points, bowler Kate Cross believes England are starting to peak just at the right time.
"We've been playing must-win cricket for a week. The fact we've got those first two wins is important to us and we've got two more must-win games to come," she said.
"It's been a difficult tournament. It's not gone how we wanted it to or how we envisaged it would, but I think we're starting to pick ourselves up at the right time, especially with the ball and in the field. I think we've been brilliant in the last two games, particularly in the field.
Anya Shrubsole and Charlie Dean [Hannah Peter/Getty Images]
"Tournament cricket is all about peaking at the right time. As long as we can keep going and keep making improvements, which I feel like we have since the first couple of games, then hopefully we can get ourselves into the knockout stage."
Reflecting on her side’s performance against New Zealand, Cross admitted they weren't "clinical" enough, especially after restricting the White Ferns to just 203 following a dynamic start from Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr. And it's a familiar criticism for England, with their earlier defeats, all of which were very narrow, somewhat self-inflicted.
"We’re just not quite being clinical enough," said Cross. "If we look at that performance, we did the first half very well to restrict New Zealand to just over 200 after the start they got. I thought it was a great effort in the field and with the ball.
"But we talked so much about partnerships, and we couldn't quite extend [them] today. I thought Nat [Sciver] and Heather [Knight] batted well but we needed someone to stay out there and try and see it home.
"We shouldn't have got ourselves into the position that Anya was walking out to bat. She's done brilliantly to get us over the line – it’s never easy being the No.11 because if you’re the wicket that goes down, it's never nice. Her and Charlie Dean were brilliant under quite a lot of pressure."
However, despite the holes in their performance, what matters at this stage is getting the two points: "It feels like we’ve lost, there’s quite a lot of negative chatter around, which is not the case. We just won a must-win game against New Zealand on their home soil at Eden Park, with the biggest crowd we've played in front of, so to come away with two points is massive.
"If you’d asked us at the start of the day, we'd absolutely have taken a one-wicket win, so we don't want to be too negative about getting that win on the board.
"When we look back, there are going to be really tiny moments when we found a way to win. At the start of the tournament, we were finding ways to lose, so the fact we've managed to get the win today is very important."
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.