{"id":667989,"date":"2026-07-01T13:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667989\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:24:09","slug":"t20-world-cup-england-captain-nat-sciver-brunt-fit-for-semi-final-against-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667989\/","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. They have also never lost a women’s international at The Oval.<\/p>\n

South Africa have been unconvincing at times during this tournament, but have reached the past three World Cup finals across formats as they chase their first World Cup win.<\/p>\n

And captain Laura Wolvaardt admitted her batting line-up – blessed with powerful strokemakers such as Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Marizanne Kapp and Wolvaardt – has not been at “100%” and it has been “frustrating” they were not able to win games more comfortably.<\/p>\n

“We have chatted about it, that if we do find ourselves in a position to kill the game earlier we are blessed with a lot of power in our line-up,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We have that opportunity to go a bit earlier. Maybe tomorrow at The Oval suits us a bit better.”<\/p>\n

Wolvaardt also swerved a question on whether she would be happy for Sciver-Brunt to have a substitute fielder, should the England captain injure her calf again. <\/p>\n

Cricket’s laws state substitutes are allowed to replace players who suffer an injury during a match, rather than an issue carried in.<\/p>\n

“As a captain it is always hard to plan for her,” Wolvaardt added.<\/p>\n

“She is a world-class batter and is able to hit really weird areas. <\/p>\n

“Setting a field is quite hard for her. Hopefully we are able to keep her quiet.”<\/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-667989","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\/667989","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=667989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667989\/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=667989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}