“I had no idea (about the record),” said Ecclestone. “When I saw the screen I didn’t know I had taken that many wickets for England. Katherine is someone I always looked up to, I got her autograph a few times and overtaking her is a bit surreal. We are both hot heads on the field and wear our hearts on our sleeves and I think she will be pleased for me.”
A coolish early summer evening in Northampton attracted a good crowd and plenty of Pakistan supporters. A green tinged pitch is a long way from the conditions England will face at the World Cup in Bangladesh in October but this was a good run out because Pakistan bowled and fielded well to make them work hard for their 144 total.
Nobody really looked settled apart from Nat Sciver-Brunt whose 31 off 21 balls was the sparkiest innings of the evening, even though Alice Capsey was named player of the match for muscling five fours in the powerplay.
The worry for England is how they struggled to move the ball around against the spinners, despite a big outfield and plenty of gaps, and they have some thinking to do. It was either fours or dots for most of the innings. England go hard with the bat and hit boundaries but will need more options against spinners squeezing them on slow pitches in Bangladesh.
Sciver-Brunt was the only batter from either side to find her timing and showed no sign of rustiness, hitting her first ball for four after missing the opening game of the series as she recovered from an egg freezing procedure. She hit three fours in four balls as Pakistan gave her too much width and also played the shot of the night – a reverse over backward point. But Sciver-Brunt fell in the 15th over as Pakistan continued to make breakthroughs to peg England back. It took some big hits from Danielle Gibson, striking 17 off the final five balls of the innings, to lift the target realistically out of Pakistan’s reach.