England have reached the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup in a remarkable turnaround as they look to retain the trophy they memorably won at Lord's in 2017.
Heather Knight's side suffered a horror start to the tournament, losing their first three games against Australia, the West Indies and South Africa. Those defeats left them on the brink of crashing out of the competition, but they fought back and won their remaining group games against India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
As a result of their 100-run victory over Bangladesh in their final group match, England have set up a showdown with South Africa at the Hagley Oval on Thursday. Should they win, they will then face either Australia or the West Indies in the final.
Sophia Dunkley was named player of the match against Bangladesh after scoring a crucial 67, while spinners Sophie Ecclestone and Charlie Dean both picked up three wickets. "It's been a really good achievement to qualify from where we started," Dunkley told BBC Sport.
"We always knew we could come back and fight for it. We’ve turned it around and we’re really happy with that.
"There’s a lot of belief and fight in our changing room. To have four wins going into the semis puts us in a very strong position."
Lydia Greenway, who was part of the England side which won the tournament in 2009, believes the current side have what it takes to retain the trophy. "I think they've probably got that momentum now, I know it's that massive cliche but they've just found ways to win games when they haven't been playing their best cricket," she told Sky Sports.
"I think back to that game against Australia when they got pretty close but then they went on that series of runs where they couldn't get that win under their belt. Sometimes you just need to find a way and that's exactly what they've done.
"They've got that fight in them now that they've found. It hasn't been there for a while, it wasn't there in Australia at the Ashes or at the start of the tournament but it's there now."
