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28 February 2020

Watch Heather Knight and Sarah Glenn excel as England breeze to victory over Pakistan to keep semi-final hopes alive

Another captain's knock from Heather Knight helped England keep their semi-final hopes alive as they eased to a 42-run victory over Pakistan in their Group B game in Canberra.

Having been put in to bat, England put on a stellar opening performance, led by captain Knight who hit a classy 62 off 51 deliveries.

Opener Amy Jones failed again when a review couldn't save her and she was dismissed lbw for 2, but Nat Sciver, who is used to coming in early, impressed with her 36 from 37.

England looked on course for a mammoth score, but the wickets tumbled towards the back end of the innings as Tammy Beaumont, Heather Knight and Katherine Brunt fell in quick succession and they finished 157-8 from their 20 overs.

Pakistan made a shaky start and slumped to 35-2 inside the powerplay and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals thanks to an impressive display of bowling from Sarah Glenn who cleaned up the middle order with her 3-15 from four overs.

Never far from the action, England's 2017 World Cup hero Anya Shrubsole wrote her name into the history books bagging her 100th T20 wicket and finishing with figures of 3-25 while Sophie Ecclestone was economical, only leaking 12 runs from her four overs and claiming two wickets in the process.

The England performance was not as seamless as the scoreline makes it sound with their bowlers leaking runs at the end and veteran Katherine Brunt was hit for 17 from the penultimate over - and they totted up 17 wides during the innings.

England's next match is another must-win game on Sunday when they take on the West Indies. If they emerge victorious they will secure a place in the knock-outs.

After the game Shrubsole played down expectations of making the final: "We can't think about that final yet. We've got a game against West Indies and hopefully a semi-final first."

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