Taylor relishing the chance to play at Lord's in World Cup final after tough year
England batter Sarah Taylor is relishing the chance to play at a sold-out Lord’s in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 final.
England booked its place in the showpiece with a dramatic two-wicket win over South Africa in Bristol on Tuesday, with Taylor scoring 54 before being run out.
And with more than 26,500 tickets sold for Sunday’s match, Taylor says reaching the World Cup final is a dream come true for all the squad.
Taylor said: “It’s what you want and what you play for. From what I’ve heard it’s going to be packed and you can’t get a ticket for love nor money.
“You want to play at Lord’s, you want to play in a World Cup final and you want to play in front of a packed house – that’s the situation you want and we’ve got it.”
But for Taylor it is even more special after she took an extended break from the game 12 months ago due to what she described as a "mental injury” after suffering from debilitating panic attacks.
She returned to the squad ahead of the World Cup and played all eight of England’s games and scored 351 runs so far in the tournament.
And Taylor says that 12 months ago she couldn’t even contemplate picking up a bat, let alone representing her country in a World Cup final.
She added: “A year ago I wasn’t even thinking that I could potentially play cricket again, so this is massive.
“I’ve probably not reflected on it enough but come the end of the tournament, whatever happens, I think I should be very proud of everything I’ve achieved and the environment the girls have created that has allowed me to come in and play the way I want to play.
“I think Robbo (England coach Mark Robinson) is included in that – he’s been massively instrumental. He keeps me grounded and reminds me every day that I should be proud, he always says congrats to me most mornings just for turning up so that’s always been nice. So I’m really proud of myself.”
Taylor believes England are fully prepared for the World Cup final having had to bounce back from its defeat by India in the first game of the tournament to win the next seven to make it to Lord’s.
And England have shown it has what it takes to win regardless of whether it bats first and sets a total or has to chase a score.
Taylor added: “Robbo speaks about creating tough players and getting through those situations can only help us.
“We’ve done it when we were batting first, now we’ve done it batting second so in terms of prep for a World Cup final we’ve ticked a lot of boxes.
“We can take a lot of pride into this game regardless of what’s going to happen. We’ve worked really hard to get here and we’ve fought like anything.”