A nail-biter, and disappointments

Now that we are out of the World Twenty20, our next focus will be the summer series against New Zealand at home. It will be good to play them in the three Twenty20 matches and the one day International series.

It's hard to predict who will go on to win the World Twenty20 trophy. The gap seems to be closing in terms of the standard of cricket played by the different teams. I think the strong contenders will be Australia, New Zealand and West Indies who have done well on their home soil. With the crowd behind them who knows. Twenty20 cricket is also so unpredictable, as it just takes one or two outstanding performances and any team could be up there.

Our match against Australia was very exciting though disappointing in the end for us. It was a fantastic batting pitch, both team bowled and fielded extremely well. After we were bowled out for 104, the bowlers had a tough task ahead of them, but we knew we could do it. We all stayed tight and the bowlers delivered.

I bowled the 19th over with us needing two wickets to win. I was concentrating on bowling the ball straight and full and that's it. Claire Taylor took a great catch to get Lisa Sthalekar's wicket and we had Australia at 97 for 9. Then Beth Morgan got the run-out of Rene Farrell with a direct hit to tie the game. It was one of the best bowling and fielding performances we have produced.

In the Super Over, we fielded first and Laura Marsh bowled for England as she had bowled well during the game. She managed to restrict them to just six runs and took a wicket. We then put Claire Taylor and Sarah Taylor in to bat against Shelley Nitschke. We lost Sarah Taylor so Morgan and Claire faced the last two balls. Since we got six as well, the match was decided on the number of sixes hit. Jess Cameron from Australia had hit the only one, so they were awarded the points.

As for West Indies, we had a game plan that we executed accurately. But they too seemed to have done their homework, they used their bowlers well.

So now it will be back to my day job, coaching at Loughborough and in schools with Chance to Shine as well as training and playing cricket for England and Surrey. Let's hope we give New Zealand a good challenge next month.