Women's World Cup: Kate Cross believes England can still retain title
- Published
Dropped catches cost England in shock defeat by Windies
ICC Women's World Cup: South Africa v England |
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Venue: Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui Date: 14 March Time: 01:00 GMT |
BBC coverage: Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra & BBC Sounds; live text and video highlights on BBC Sport website & app |
Bowler Kate Cross has insisted England can still win the Women's World Cup, despite losing their first two games.
The defending champions have been beaten by Australia and West Indies, and face South Africa on Monday knowing another defeat would push them to the brink of elimination.
"If we can get that win on the board, there is still a great chance we can qualify and go on to win the World Cup," Cross told BBC Sport.
"We've not written that off yet."
England went winless in losing the Ashes series to Australia in January and February, then lost to the tournament favourites in their opening game, before a shock defeat by West Indies.
They take on South Africa in Mount Maunganui in what Cross admitted was "probably" England's most important one-day international since they won the 2017 World Cup final.
The Proteas are ranked as the second best team in the world, but pace bowler Cross said England could take confidence from a comfortable win when the two sides met in a warm-up game.
"We have a really good team. We just have to remember that," said 30-year-old Cross.
"A dressing room can be a hard place to be when you haven't been winning.
"But the thing that is pleasing about the World Cup so far is we have competed, whereas there were parts of the Ashes where we didn't compete."
England were only beaten by 12 runs against Australia, then seven runs against West Indies, dropping five catches and conceding 23 runs in wides in the latter.
"We're losing by small margins, but a lot of it is our own doing," said Cross. "The amount of wides we've been bowling has cost us and the fielding has not been the standard we set for ourselves, so that is something we have to look at and hopefully improve on."
Opener Lauren Winfield-Hill has not made a half-century since 2016, so could be replaced, either by bringing Emma Lamb into the side, or promoting Danni Wyatt from the middle-order.
"Whoever the management decide to take out on that field, we will back that team to win the game," said Cross.
"Hopefully we can come off the pitch and sing our team song, which we've not been able to do this winter. That would be a lovely moment."
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