03:20

To begin, I’m going to ask you to suspend reality. Yes, we all know that it is raining, heavily in Sydney. Sure, the chances of play in this first semi-final aren’t overly crash hot unless we get a two-hour window of dry. But that’s precisely what we had when the Big Bash Final was played at the SCG two weeks ago, so let’s invest our faith in that and prepare as though there will be play until there isn’t. Deal?

If we were expecting a toss in about ten minutes from now I would tell you that England, despite being the lower seed in this final-four clash - the second qualifier from Group B - have an imposing record against India in this format. Indeed, the Group A winners have only beaten England four times in 20 starts. One of those 16 defeats was in very similar circumstances to this in Antigua 18 months ago in the World T20 semi, when Harmanpreet Kaur’s side stumbled after blitzing their pool.

On that occasion, the secret sauce for Heather Knight’s side was how they prepared for facing the spin of 4-foot-11 legspinner Poonam Yadav. I was at their training session where their then-assistant coach, Ali Maiden, was bowling from his knees to help ready the England top order for her unique trajectory. It worked a treat, with Amy Jones taking the Indian spinners apart on a deathly slow pitch.

The good news for India, though, is they have enjoyed a tournament here that suggests they have made several strides forward since then. After thrashing Australia in the tournament opener, they cruised through the group with teenage sensation Shafali Verma giving them a flyer on each occasion. Also, that neither the skipper nor superstar Smriti Mandhana have made big runs yet highlights the sort of scope they have to shift into another gear this afternoon.



Both sides are settled so the teamsheets are unlikely to contain any suprises. Tammy Beaumont will remain at the top of the list with Amy Jones at six, their switch allowing Mady Villiers, the Essex tweaker, to join Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn to give Knight a three-pronged spin attack. If the rain stops. If it doesn’t, then India will go through without a ball being bowled. Sigh.

