We have got to keep moving forward, keep developing and not stand still leading into that World Cup: Heather Knight

Heather Knight became the fourth England player to score 3000 runs during the third ODI against India at the County Ground in New Road, Worcester on Saturday (July 3) and also picked up the wicket to take her 50^th wicket in the format. Despite these individual milestones, England’s loss meant it wasn’t memorable day for the England captain. But the 30-year-old believes you learn more from a defeat than and win and they want to take those learnings forward as they continue their preparation upcoming Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in early next year.



“Although it's a frustrating end to the series, we will probably learn a little bit more from today than we did (from) the first two games, which isn't a bad thing,” Knight said at the post match media interaction on Saturday. "I think as individuals and as a team, we have got to keep moving forward and keep developing and not stand still leading into that World Cup."



“We probably haven't been put under that sort of pressure recently. I think today will be a really good learning for us and good to be put under pressure and put in those situations where it is close. We have got historic success of being very good in these situations. Hopefully we can continue to do that and today wasn’t our day. But I think we will learn a lot from it.”



With India needing six runs from the final over, Knight opted for the pace of Katherine Brunt in the last over on a slow wicket. She defended her decision and said she would back the veteran fast bowler to get England over the line in most situations.



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“This is something Katherine has done consistently and very successfully for us and bowling at the death. I would go to her very often to win us games. She's won so many games for England doing that. Obviously didn't work out today but it doesn't work out every time,” Knight said. “I think it was quite slow and that she could have taken a little bit more pace off. But I still back Brunty to bowl the last over in any international we play.”



For India, skipper Mithali Raj batted through the innings to anchor the chase and guide them to the win in the third ball of the final over. She remained not out on 75 from 87 balls on the day she broke Charlotte Edwards’ record of most international runs in women’s cricket.



“I think Mithali's innings was very well placed and won them the game. Her strength is manipulating the field and she's quite hard to stop the singles that she gets, particularly through the off-side,” Knight added.



“It's a pitch that was quite hard to score quickly at the death. They obviously had that set batter that enabled them to score a little bit more freely. She did have a little bit more intent today, which made it a little bit harder to contain it while she was getting those singles and had fielders back, fair play to her. Obviously overtaking Charlotte’s record is an amazing achievement.”







“The wicket was very tough today, that (batting on it) wasn't particularly fun or aesthetically pleasing and we had to grind out a little bit. We have had a bit of a work on slow wickets to try and bang out 240-250 score consistently and (we were) a little bit short of that today. But it's something that we want to keep working on moving forward.”



England’s next ODI series is against the visitors New Zeland where they will play five ODIs before touring Pakistan for an away series in October ahead of the Ashes. Knight, who led England in more than 100 matches, wants her side to keep evolving and move forward to help them with the title defence in New Zealand.



“I think there are certainly still places up for grabs. We have still got a lot of cricket to come. We've got obviously five ODIs against New Zealand and then a trip to Pakistan before the ashes and the World Cup. We are reasonably clear on most XI, there's always that conundrum - seven batters or an extra bowler - Gone with the extra bowler this trip. In terms of the batting line up, we (have) performed reasonably well for a long period now. Kate Cross has come in as a bowler and performed outstandingly well in that role in the middle,” Knight concluded.