England’s top talents shine in show of T20 World Cup title credentials

England v South Africa, Match Centre and Scorecard

Sophie Ecclestone and Nat Sciver-Brunt played crucial roles in England’s seven-wicket win, and with their best players in such excellent form it will take a strong performance to beat Heather Knight’s side at this ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

When Ecclestone is on song there are few better… in fact, there are none better according to the ICC Women's Player Rankings, where the spinner tops both the T20I and ODI bowling charts.

And the left-arm spinner produced a world-class display against South Africa, with figures of 2/15 from her four overs.

Ecclestone removed both of South Africa’s best batters on the day, clean-bowling Laura Wolvaardt (42) and Marizanne Kapp (26), and she spoke of the satisfaction of delivering her best cricket against such high-calibre opponents.

"It's always great to do it against the world's best and to get those two big wickets in Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp, I was happy.

"I am very lucky to have four spinners in the team. All of them are high-class players and we work well as a unit so I am absolutely buzzing to play alongside them.”

And speaking in England press conference after the win, Nat Sciver-Brunt was full of praise for the role that Ecclestone took on, most notably acting as a death bowler.

“She obviously can bowl wherever in the innings, and we’re saving her a couple of overs for when batters really want to get after her,” Sciver-Brunt said.

“Having had a go on that wicket already we’ve learnt pretty well as to what was really difficult and she executed that really well.”

WATCH: Action-packed passage of play as spinners claw back

England’s spinners played a crucial part in slowing down South Africa’s batting effort after a strong powerplay, with Wolvaardt telling the media after the match that the quartet were very hard to score off.

“Their spinners didn’t leave the stumps at all and it was really difficult to get away.”

And for England, having a four-pronged spin attack looks set to be a crucial part of their campaign in the UAE.

“Obviously we’ve got three world-class spinners who are usually in the team and then Linsey Smith has just added to that and made it really difficult for teams to get after people.

“In general in women’s cricket there’s a lot of spin bowling in women’s cricket, so that has made it quite difficult (for opponents) to keep momentum. At the moment the plan is working.”

WATCH: Nat Sciver-Brunt unleashes a flurry of fours in the middle overs

Sciver-Brunt herself played a key part in England’s win, top scoring with 48* from 36 balls.

And she revealed that rotating the strike and running hard twos was a key part of her plan in a match-defining partnership with Danni Wyatt-Hodge.

“When I came to the middle obviously we were a little bit behind the rate, but I knew if me and Danni stayed together and put a partnership together and ran really well, knowing that boundaries are quite hard to hit on that wicket (we’d be okay).

“From the first game I think that was something we really wanted to do, was run really well between the wicket, the importance of running twos and moving fielders out of the way so you can hit into the gap a bit easier that was the plan.

“I was looking to be positive, get off strike and run really well, and use that momentum for boundaries.”

WATCH: Wyatt-Hodge leads the way

Wyatt-Hodge’s run-a-ball 43 had helped set the platform for England and came after her lively 41 in the team’s opening win over Bangladesh.

But Sciver-Brunt says that the England opener is used to scoring at a faster rate and has been frustrated by the lack of fluency on the sluggish track in Sharjah.

“She’s been very frustrated with both of the innings. She’s probably used to being 70 off of 40. But the innings that she’s playing for us are so important, and being able to hit it in areas that only she can really probably makes her quite difficult to bowl at in these conditions. Hopefully she can continue to do that and not get too frustrated.”

England will play Scotland in their next match on Sunday, before rounding off their Group B schedule against West Indies.