England need to be in best form to beat South Africa at World Cup – Linsey Smith

Linsey Smith believes England will have to be at their best to beat South Africa on Monday in their second Women’s T20 World Cup match.

Slow left-arm bowler Smith was in impressive form as England opened the tournament with a 21-run win over Bangladesh on Saturday, taking two wickets for 11 runs.

Monday’s encounter will invoke painful memories for England of the 2023 T20 World Cup when they lost by six wickets to hosts South Africa in the semi-finals.

Smith said: “It’s obviously spoken about quite a fair bit that game. I think the girls took a lot of learning from it.

“We’re just looking forward to taking them on again in a World Cup. Obviously, they had a really strong win the other day and we’re going to have to be at our best again to take the fight to them and hopefully get another win.”

South Africa thrashed West Indies by 10 wickets in their opening game in Dubai, while Monday’s game will be in Sharjah, where England faced Bangladesh on a slow pitch.

“I think obviously Bangladesh showed that the way they bowled, took a lot of pace off and boundaries were really hard to come by,” Smith said.

“We knew that obviously it was quite slow and low and just tried to keep the stumps in play and try and put pressure on them that way.”

Sussex and Northern Superchargers bowler Smith last appeared at a T20 World Cup for England in the West Indies in 2018 and is relishing her chance at resurrecting her international career.

She added: “It was obviously six years ago now I think, so a long time. I took a bit of time away from the England setup, which I think just helped me grow and do a lot of self-reflection and think about how I wanted to be and how I wanted to play the game.

“It was tough, but I knew I always wanted to get back in an England shirt and kind of do myself a bit of justice.

“I felt like I didn’t play very well six years ago so it was nice to obviously get another chance to do that in a World Cup.”