Hunger driving Wyatt-Hodge, Matthews eyes semi-final mission

Danni Wyatt-Hodge kept England going Getty Images

Danni Wyatt-Hodge is batting like a player on a mission, and she is.

With England now through to the T20 World Cup semi-finals after beating West Indies comfortably at Lord's on Wednesday night, they have their sights set on winning their last group game with New Zealand on Saturday and finishing top of their pool.

They will be without captain Nat Sciver-Brunt for a third match in a row as she continues her rehabilitation for a recurrence of a calf injury. MRI scans on Wednesday showed she was progressing well, and she was able to bat in the nets, but team medical staff have advised her to take more time to recover. England have been getting the job done without her, beating Scotland and now West Indies, but they will be keen to have her fit for the knockout stages.

After setting up England's latest win with a 42-ball 65, Wyatt-Hodge - a veteran of eight T20 World Cups - made clear the aim going forward in the tournament.

"Keep being hungry," she said. "That's really important. That's my mindset. Going out to bat, I want to score runs in every game. I really want to get my hands on that trophy. I've never won a T20 World Cup so I just want to keep scoring runs, keep contributing and really enjoy it.

"When I play my best cricket I'm hungry, I want it, I've got good energy, I'm running well and if I don't have that then I won't be as good so I just try and keep that fire in my belly and just hold onto that feeling and just really want to score runs."

After lighting up the opening night of the tournament with an unbeaten century at Edgbaston, Wyatt-Hodge had two lean innings before her latest, classy knock in sapping heat.

"That was the hottest I've ever played cricket in this country," Wyatt-Hodge said after temperatures hit 34 degrees just before the toss. "Very close to two years ago when we played Scotland at 2pm [in Sharjah], that was hot and this was very close.

"I was making the most of being at the non-strikers end, taking some deep breaths, but it was very enjoyable. I'd rather play in the heat than the cold any day so I'm not complaining too much."

Wyatt-Hodge had little energy left when Heather Knight called her through for an extremely risky single and she came up well short. There were a few communication shortcomings, while running between the wickets and in the field, which England will look to rectify as they prepare for tougher tests ahead.

West Indies can still qualify for the semi-finals, but will need to improve in several facets if they are to defeat Ireland in their final group game, and go beyond.

While acknowledging her side were still far off their peak, Hayley Matthews, the West Indies captain, was upbeat.

"It's all in our hands," Matthews said. "The fact that it's all in our hands puts us in a wonderful position. Coming into this World Cup, if you said to us we just have to beat Ireland in the last match and we have a finals spot we'd have grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

"The message to the team is just going to be to keep believing, keep playing some really good cricket. Against a team like Ireland, if we are at our best or near to our best, we should be coming out on the right side of the result.

"I'm not saying anything bad about Ireland, but I think we're pretty confident. We obviously know that they've got some dangerous players in T20 cricket. It takes one or two players to take a game away from you. But, at the same time, we're just going to back our best cricket and going to that match knowing that it's all in our hands."

Matthews fell to a contentious DRS decision in which she was given out caught behind for just 14 when there appeared to be a gap between bat and ball when UltraEdge showed a spike.

Since scoring 48 in their opening match against New Zealand, Matthews hasn't passed 17, while Deandra Dottin's best so far is 19 and Stafanie Taylor, who has twice played pivotal innings, didn't bat against England as she was suffering from a respiratory illness which has swept through the West Indies camp since their arrival.

Chinelle Henry was the standout performer with an unbeaten 51, having taken time to get going in the tournament after missing the first game. But West Indies struggled to make a sustained impact with the ball after Henry dismissed Amy Jones with the first delivery of the match, and their fielding has been lacklustre.

"We certainly still are very far away from peaking at this point in time," Matthews said. "It's still not quite firing with the bat. I need to get some runs. Deandra probably feels like she hasn't been at her best either and yet we're still winning games, we're still competing.

"It's a really good sign because at one time we probably might have struggled to win a lot of these games without myself or Deandra performing really well and the fact that I've been struggling, she's been struggling, Chinelle's only really got in the scoring today and we're still in the position we are, shows that we've got a lot more people that we're relying on now."

Aaliyah Alleyne went wicketless against England but has eight so far at 10.00 with an economy rate of 6.66, Jahzara Claxton has impressed Matthews with the bat notwithstanding a stodgy 21 off 34 balls at Lord's and Shemaine Campbelle produced a brilliant innings to deliver victory over New Zealand.

"We're having a lot of people step up," Matthews added. "If we can get it all together for just a few days, I reckon we seem like a team that might be able to beat anyone."