Karaoke and a rather sumptious steak

The day of the game against Australia dawned and I lost the toss. They put us in to bat and we got a really good total of 268 for 8 - probably our best batting performance of the whole tour. Sarah Taylor hit her maiden ODI century – a very mature innings and she was well-supported by Claire Taylor who made 54.

Although we gave a brave bowling performance Australia reached the target in the 46th over. Again there were a lot of positives to take from the game, but we’re definitely missing our strike bowlers – Katherine Brunt and Nicky Shaw and that area is proving to be our downfall.

That night we went for dinner at The Crown restaurant, situated on the top floor of our hotel with views right across Chennai. I finally managed to get my hands on a fillet steak, which filled a hole! It was quite an eventful evening with Claire Taylor spilling a round of drinks down her neck and me getting up to sing along with the Indian entertainment! (a man and his keyboard singing old classics). We requested a few songs which he did for us, but the favourite of the evening by far was “Alice, Alice, who the heck is Alice”, which we all joined in with to the entertainment of the whole restaurant!

Fellow Kent player Lynsey Askew also got up and did a fantastic rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic and it was so good, she got a standing ovation!

On Friday, although it was a rest day, I was up at 6am because my body clock is still all over the place, which I’m fuming about. We spent the morning by the pool and then I had my daily massage; this time I went for my legs, which proved to be a huge mistake as I have a few fielding injuries! In the afternoon five of the team went for throw-downs at the main stadium. I got a lot out of the session and was looking forward to the following day’s game against the kiwis.

That night we went to the luxurious Park Hotel to have dinner in the restaurant there. It was an amazing hotel with lovely food – it’s a pity we only found it in the last five days of the tour as it would have made a nice change from Pizza Hut! We had a nice team meal then headed back for an early night.

I’d been sent some bright pink bat grips to show my support for breast cancer awareness, so I put a new grip onto my bat in preparation for the game the next day. It’s a cause close to my heart and a few of the other girls needed no persuasion to do the same. I won the toss against New Zealand, on our last group game of the tournament and elected to field. With probably our best bowling and fielding display of the tour on the pitch with a lightning outfield, we restricted the kiwis to 267-9 with Holly Colvin picking up three wickets.

Our reply started very badly, stumbling to 57 for 5. A partnership between Askew and me put us back on track until I was dismissed leaving us on 131 for 7. A fine 68 from Lynsey kept us in with a chance and gave her her first international half-century. But the kiwi bowlers proved too much for our tailend and we were all out for 240 – 27 runs short. It was a remarkable fightback from the position we were in and we showed a lot of guts and determination. It was a quiet night for me watching a bit of the Premier League football, in preparation for the team photo the following day.

On Sunday we headed to the main stadium for team photos - the girls don’t scrub up too badly! We had one England photo and then one of all four teams together. After the photos had been taken one of the camera men started to cover the Indian girls with coloured powder and flowers to celebrate the “Holy” festival, a Hindi festival, which is a celebration of colour and takes place today – March 4. They then turned to the other teams and a load of the girls got absolutely covered in colour – their hair, faces and clothes were completely covered! It was hilarious but thankfully I escaped unscathed and made it back to the bus without a dash of colour!

We’ve had the same bus and support team throughout our whole tour and I’ve made a bit of a friend in the guy who loads our bags and helps us down (it’s very steep steps!) I’ll definitely be sad to say goodbye to them all!

I had a bit of a rest in the afternoon and then did a few last minute interviews for various TV Channels, including one where they dressed me in a sari! As it was our last free night, we decided to treat ourselves and headed back to 601 for dinner. I had an early night in preparation for our final game the next day – the third-place play-off against India – and hopefully our first win of the tour!