{"id":667924,"date":"2026-07-01T12:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667924\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:39:09","slug":"t20-world-cup-england-captain-nat-sciver-brunt-fit-for-semi-final-against-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667924\/","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt fit for semi-final against South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been passed fit to return from injury for Thursday’s T20 World Cup semi-final against South Africa.<\/p>\n

Sciver-Brunt, 33, who has not played since England’s second match of the tournament against Ireland after a recurrence of her calf issue, batted in the nets again on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

She also trained on Tuesday at Lord’s and England have deemed her fit enough to return as her side attempts to win a World Cup for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

“We are confident I am fully fit,” Sciver-Brunt told BBC Test Match Special.<\/p>\n

Sciver-Brunt, who has used rare magnetic resonance therapy to help regain her fitness<\/a>, is likely to replace Sophia Dunkley in England’s XI.<\/p>\n

Batter Dunkley was seen in conversation with coach Charlotte Edwards shortly before Sciver-Brunt emerged to speak to the media.<\/p>\n

While Sciver-Brunt batted for half an hour on Wednesday, appearing relatively free and able to come down the pitch to spinners, there are obvious risks involved.<\/p>\n

She worked with England’s physio indoors at the start of the session but did not do any running or fielding drills outdoors. <\/p>\n

There are less than 72 hours before Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n

“We have tested it enough to be comfortable,” she said. “What will happen out on the pitch will happen.”<\/p>\n

Assuming she comes through, Sciver-Brunt’s presence for the latter stages is a significant boost to England.<\/p>\n

She is their best batter and, though Charlie Dean has stood up successfully in her absence, their captain. Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt-Hodge are the only players remaining from their last World Cup win.<\/p>\n

England have lost their last two World Cup semi-finals against South Africa – at last year’s 50-over World Cup and the T20 version in 2023 – but go into Thursday’s match at The Oval as favourites, having progressed through the group stage unbeaten.<\/p>\n

South Africa have been unconvincing at times but progressed despite losing their first match of the tournament to Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been passed fit to return from injury for Thursday’s T20 World Cup semi-final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-667924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}