Nat Sciver-Brunt

Mm.

And you know, sometimes we think that England are very dependent [laughs] upon Nat Sciver-Brunt, that's nothing compared to how dependent Ireland are upon Orla Prendergast.

Um, let's look at the batting specifically and look at the numbers there.

Um, you know, as we said, there are a couple other batters.

But what that brought is, uh, uh, was a, was a group of mates who actually weren't cricket fans back then, who are now.

So this is obviously if we can, uh, produce the next Nat Sciver-Brunt or Harry Brook, fantastic.

That, that'd be great.

But it's more about making sure that, uh, cricket is growing i, in terms of a fan base.

We haven't had to have too many bowl offs, which is, uh, good for the game.

Um, yeah, and to see so many smiley faces playing the game of cricket, it doesn't get much better.

Well, somebody with a very special interest in the women's final is a former England all-rounder, Catherine Sciver-Brunt.

She, uh, she went to one of the schools involved in today's final, Penistone Grammar, and, uh, I've chatted to her about exactly what it all means.

There were a few of the players who weren't playing, you know, so the likes of Sophie Ecclestone, she'd walk straight back into an England side.

Nat Sciver-Brunt not playing, so Charlie Dean captaining, so it would've been nice to see someone like Grace Potts get a go.

She's been sort of carried around a bit by England, and actually she's star of the future.

A bit like Potts in the men's team, just gets carried around [laughs] and doesn't play.

What, at the end of the winter when you come out of that, is it just that England have dominated these bilateral series again and got to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy? 'Cause, like, that's kind of about par, right? What, what does a good winter actually look like?

I think questions answered really, like in short, is who's my opening batter? Who's my keeper? What does my seam attack look like? Like, who is my, where are my investments gonna be in the seam attack? Who's my next Heather Knight? And then, you know, you've got, you've probably got definitively Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt-Hodge to add back into there.

Um, they're the big things that I think they've got to find out is that, you know, if Danni c- you know, well, Danni's definitely gonna come back in.

Is she gonna be, is she gonna be middle order? Is she gonna be top order? Like, in ODI cricket she's been here, there, and everywhere.

Um, so I think that's the big one for the winter for me.

I think you've sort of got to piece together the style of players that you need to tick off and I think if you're gonna go with Dunks at the top of your order, you've sort of got like, you got your power and then you've got your traditional with, with Dunks and Boucher.

You've obviously got your world-class with Nat Sciver-Brunt and then if you're trying to replace somebody like Heather Knight with that, like she's like the glue, she's like the cog.

It probably does lean more towards somebody like a Jodie Grocock where she can play that mature innings.

And also as well, though, so we go to the England women's innings as well.

You know, obviously the likes of Amy Jones being rested for this series, Natalie Brunt being rested for this series.

Maya Boucher comes in, done over 95 balls.

She's carried

Yeah, it's a very different looking side.

There's a few players not playing in this one, the likes of Nat Sciver-Brunt, who normally captains, Alice Capsey with the gloves, which will be very interesting, instead of Amy Jones.

So Charlie Dean captaining, which she has done for this England side when Nat Sciver-Brunt's been out injured.

But a strong looking side.

There's a few youngsters back in, so the likes of Rhiannon McDonald-Gay.

She's had a brilliant, a brilliant summer for Warwickshire.

Um, what it does do is obviously depletes a lot of teams of players, domestic players who, you know, you don't normally get a Lauren Bell or a Nat Sciver-Brunt or a Heather Knight back playing, or Amy Jones when England are playing, sorry.

So they're not normally in the c- domestic stuff, but what it is doing is taking, like, big parts of squads out of domestic cricket now.

So it is crunch time in the 50-over cup as well because there's a lot of people fighting for third place.

So last time it was, you know, they had an ex- explicit excuse for it, which was that they w- had a World Cup training camp, um, and so they sent a load of, you know, second-string players.

This time they've gone, "Well, you know, we've got a load of players we want to rest," so like the likes of Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt, Hodge, who are both still recovering from injuries.

Um, and uh, Amy Jones for example, another one.

So-

Done that.

But-

Feel like I've watched Charli Dean captain this summer just as much as I've watched Nat Sciver-Brunt captain.

Almost have, I think, yeah.

Um, and she's someone whose name has been mentioned as being really highly rated over the last year or so.

She was name-checked by Nat Sciver-Brunt as a really exciting prospect over the winter.

Um, and with Mahika Gaur out injured at the minute as well, she's someone who could add a point of difference to the bowling line-up.

England don't have another left arm seamer in their squad.

It's so tough bowling the first five or 10 balls in 100.

Like, you could be two-for or you could get absolutely belted, and you're bowling at the Oval, a- and it's not very forgiving when you've got another left-armer sat and, you know, sat on the bench waiting to take your spot.

So I do f- I feel like if she'd had a better time of it in the 100 we might have seen her name in there, because I do think she's, um, like, as you said, Nat Sciver-Brunt correctly said, I think she's a really strong prospect.

Mm.