Tauranga: Amy Jones has urged England to focus on enjoying their cricket as they look to get their title defence back on track against India at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022. England suffered their third consecutive loss of the tournament against South Africa last time out, losing by three wickets following previous defeats to Australia and West Indies. That result was underpinned by more fielding errors, including dropped chances and a missed stumping, but Jones believes England are more than capable of correcting those wrongs. “After the West Indies game, we dropped and missed a lot of chances, so we spoke about that as a group, obviously not wanting to put a huge amount of pressure on the first opportunity that comes in the next game,” said Jones. “We just spoke about how we want to be really positive, really supportive of each other out there and just do the little things right, like attacking the ball and getting some good energy going. “The chances will be created from that and we know our skill level is good enough to take those chances. It was unfortunate that we missed a few last time out, but with the games coming so quick you have to look individually if there’s any quick learnings you can make. “In terms of the whole team, it’s so important that we keep supporting each other, we keep the energy high in the field and as a team we play at our best when we’re enjoying it, we’re supporting each other and having a bit of a laugh – that’s the mood we want to create.” Jones was one of England’s standout performers against South Africa, contributing a maiden World Cup half-century, and the wicketkeeper-batter admitted it was nice to be back among the runs after a lean phase. “It’s obviously good to score some runs as I’ve obviously been quite short of runs recently so it was a bit of a relief to be honest but I didn’t change a huge amount,” she said. “I’d been struggling to rotate the strike in the first few games and then been putting some unnecessary pressure on myself so I was just trying to stay relaxed at the crease. “I wanted to trust my timing and not try and force it if there were a few dot balls. It was great to get going into my innings and have that partnership with Tammy (Beaumont).” England have a good recent record against India and with every game now a must-win for the reigning champions, Jones hopes that will come into play when they meet again. “It definitely helps,” she added. “It’s quite natural to look back at the last games you played against them and to have that recent success against them as a group will give us confidence.” England and India will clash on March 16 at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui. The match starts at 6:30 AM IST. UNI PN
