I was walking back to the pavilion with dust in my mouth from my extravagant dive © Getty Images

It was nice to finish the Twenty20 series [against South Africa] with a clean sweep. The goal was to continue the momentum we have had from the one-day games, and Twenty20 being the shorter format meant we had to be ultra disciplined to achieve that. I think for us as a squad it was important preparation for the World Twenty20 next year, as we haven’t played an excessive amount therefore everything we can fit in now will be important and we, like everyone else, will have to learn fast.

For me personally the Twenty20s ended up as a bit of a disaster. I have never had three ducks in a row in my life! Well I’ll describe it for you. First game two balls left, the aim was to swing from my boots which I did … unfortunately missing the ball. The second duck, well a bit of a mix-up with the captain with a few ‘yes’ and ‘no’ calls, and next I was walking back to the pavilion with dust in my mouth from my extravagant dive! The final duck, when I got the opportunity to open, was bad shot-selection, trying to pull a ball that most probably wasn’t quite there and I ended up lbw. Personally I am gutted as I had a good opportunity to score some runs but missed out.

I have been asked how you keep your chin up in situations like this. Well I think the first two I have to accept as the nature of Twenty20 cricket. The lbw is something I have to work on in the nets. But I still feel in top form, striking the ball well and have faith in my ability, so back to business as usual.

Looking ahead to India starting on Saturday will be a different challenge altogether. I last saw and played against India last year in the Women's Quadrangular Series in Chennai. They were definitely a strong unit and have the likes of fast bowler Jhulan Goswami. (Most probably my favourite female bowler, after all our girls of course.) She has an impressive record being one of the few bowlers to have over 100 ODI wickets, and although I personally haven’t faced her, bounce and movement off the seam is where she is dangerous.

I am really looking forward to the challenge and I know the girls are also. South Africa were good preparation for the India series and it was a chance to see them before the ICC Women’s World Cup. We also got to rotate the squad so everyone is feeling in form. A few days off between the two series and I am itching to get going again. We will prepare this week, and let’s hope we can put in a solid performance before they settle.

	Caroline Atkins has set a benchmark, along with Sarah Taylor © Getty Images

We approached the South Africa series, which we won 4-0, how we needed to. The aim was to go out there and play cricket the way we can, which was highlighted in the game at Lord's.


There are still a lot of areas to improve, which we will sit down and work out for ourselves. We've got areas we definitely need to improve individually. We just need to build more partnerships with the batting; with bowling we need to keep hitting the right areas. But every bowler's had a chance to bowl and every batter's had a chance to bat, so we are all in form.

Lord's in particular was a great game to watch, we fired on all cylinders and the team spirit was great. Being at Lord's is always one of the best places to play or be and a game like that is what we want to work towards being our baseline. We always want to approach our cricket looking to achieve big partnerships, strong bowling performances, and big displays in the field in every game.

For me as an opener, watching Sarah Taylor and Caroline Atkins make the highest opening partnership inspired me as a batter and I feel has set the bar for future England performances. Both of these girls are good friends of mine and I really enjoyed watching them cash in and do what we all know they are capable of.

From a personal level it's good because it ups the ante and I enjoy it more when the competition is heating up. I think it's healthy competition, it's what we need in the team. It's also good to know that if someone isn't performing, there is someone else with the ability to come in and perform . It gets me focussed more to make sure I do a good job when I get in there.

I also have to be realistic. I've only played two games for England as a batter. So you can't expect excessive amounts but when you do go out there you have to play to your gameplan and that's all you can ever do.

The first game I played I hit 45 and I was happy with how I approached it. Obviously I was nervous but I watched the ball and got my eye in and played the way I play – I hit over the top; it's my natural game.

The second game was a bit different, I came in at 3 which is rare – I'm usually either opening (which I prefer) or lower order – I still felt I played to my gameplan. I only got 17 off 19 balls, but I was pleased with the way I approached it - taking on the spinners, cutting the short ones - but unfortunately I got out pushing one trying to be too aggressive.

I have to learn when to rein it back but I am happy with my approach and it will be a matter of time before things start to kick on better. I like to open, but obviously I'll do what's best for the team.

Now we have the three Twenty20s coming up against South Africa. A lot of us haven't played Twenty20 so this is a good chance to think about how we want to approach next year's World Twenty20.

	South Africa were successful in the Ireland leg of their tour © Rob O'Connor

We weren't really surprised though - England have always been a good side. I've seen some videos of when they played in 2000 and I've watched them mature as a team - nowadays they can beat Australia. When we saw the results against Australia and New Zealand earlier this year we knew they would be hard work.

That was what made this tour so awesome because we needed to see what we need to do to close the gap on the top four teams in the world. Although we lost the series 4-0 what makes us different to 2003 was that we never seemed to grow then. In this series we've improved, in team spirit – even though we were losing, we still stuck there. I think the girls have showed a lot of character, getting well beaten in the first games then coming back in the last two.

In the first two games England took us on with the batting and our bowlers definitely had to improve on being more consistent and working on their skill level and they have. In terms of the fielding, we had to adapt our field placings to their style of play. We have worked hard.

The only thing we would still be disappointed with would be the batting department. We haven't had the partnerships to give the top order some confidence. The top order need to be able to improve on skills to take on the bowlers. The main thing for us, especially against England, was finding there were much fewer balls that were loose so the girls had to work hard for the runs. Out of frustration they would play a loose shot and get out. We must learn to really graft in the provincial league and just work for our runs.


Throughout the series the girls have learned a great deal and we've taken out a lot of positives. We've improved throughout the series. It's not only been negative for us, it's been extremely positive as we prepare for next year's World Cup. We are willing to work and aiming for the semi-final.


Obviously we have our provincial league when we get back and we will play as much as possible. We have challenged the girls to play international-level cricket in the provincial league. We would also look to the Super Fours fixtures which were perfect for us when we trialled them at Twenty20 level before the tour. Once you've got the top 44 players in the country, the more cricket we play the better we become and that's also in the pipeline closer to November.


I played county cricket for Kent in 2004 and the Super Fours was new in England and we suggested it in South Africa and we put it on a trial run because of geographical settings - it's a lot harder to get the teams together to play as they are so spread out.


But it's definitely the way to go, and now hopefully we can expand the tournament to work on the ODIs. Cricket South Africa will definitely do from their side what they can as always and I know they had a big role to play in arranging the sponsorship for us.


In the meantime we've got three Twenty20 games to look forward to against England this week. We haven't played as much as England have and so it will be more great experience. We will go hard and play positive.

It has been a hectic few days for the members of the South African team. We had to leave for England immediately after the inaugural Twenty20 Super Fours domestic competition over the weekend. The team is geared up for the first match of the tour, an ODI against Ireland in Crowthorne on Thursday, which will be followed by a Twenty20 international the next day.

The Super Fours was a great experience and showed that there is some strength and depth for women’s cricket in South Africa. It is something that I am certain Cricket South Africa will look to repeat in the future, both for Twenty20 and 50-over cricket.

Back to the series, there hasn’t been much time to acclimatise to local conditions. The matches against Ireland, whom we had defeated to qualify for the World Cup, will offer invaluable practice time ahead of some of the tougher challenges that lie ahead for us on the tour. We are also aware that Ireland’s side will have some different faces to the team that played us in Stellenbosch, but to be honest our main focus is just on our game.

We know the things that we need to work on in the build-up to the World Cup and this tour will show us what we need to compete against the very best in the world.

It is not very often we have the chance to go away as a squad for a month, so I am determined that we can use this time to bond as a side and really work on our game. I felt the week we spent together as a team in Stellenbosch earlier in the year really helped us, so hopefully we can really take something from being together for a long period of time.

While I would love to see some of the sites that England has to offer and watch our men’s team in the Test series, our main focus will very much be on making sure that we use our time as effectively as possible. We also want to make sure the whole squad gets exposure to international cricket during the trip.

I can’t wait for the challenge and hopefully we can look to be as successful as Graeme Smith’s side on their tour to England.