NICK HOWSON: It was little coincidence to see the defending champions' most clinical display yet at the Women's World Cup underpinned by the return to form of their all-time wicket-taker
Katherine Brunt has hailed "a special day" for England after the Women's World Cup holders took a major stride towards the semi-finals thanks to victory over Pakistan in Christchurch
Brunt claimed 3 for 17 to help bowl Pakistan out for just 105 before Danni Wyatt smashed an unbeaten 76 from 68 balls to complete the routine chase in 19.2 overs.
The win takes England above India on net run rate and into fourth place, a point behind West Indies whose clash with South Africa was rained off.
Beating Bangladesh in their final group game on Sunday (March 27) will be enough to secure a semi-final place and is likely to ensure they avoid favourites Australia until the final at the earliest.
In stark contrast to their other group wins, this was a relatively customary success for an England side who have done things the hard way.
Three defeats at the start of the group stage were followed by four and one-wicket wins over India and New Zealand. But this nine-wicket success at Hagley Oval represented a welcome return to form.
The relief as Brunt returned to form was palpable (Peter Meecham/Getty Images)
"Yeah, as you know during COVID times, we can't go to the hairdresser and get our hair done, so the grey hairs are emerging and we don't wish to add to the grey hairs, so we would like some nice comfortable wins," said Brunt, 36.
"Today was a special day - one we've been really aiming towards getting a complete game in with bat, ball and the field.
"We will definitely take a lot of confidence from this and we will keep trying to gain momentum and that's you know what we've been trying to do the whole series and sometimes you got to be - you're on, sometimes you're off.
"But you do keep counting up, you do keep giving your best and you're all for the team and to get better in this tournament. So yeah, we'll take a lot of confidence for sure."
It was a particularly important day for Brunt, who has struggled for form during the World Cup. She came into the game with a single wicket from five matches, averaging 202.
But it took just one delivery to improve on that record, catching the edge of Nahida Khan's bat from the first ball of the match, with captain Heather Knight gobbling up the chance at first slip.
The Yorkshirewomen returned to take a chunk out of the Pakistan middle-order, trapped Nida Dar lbw and in her next over getting Sidra Ameen to chop on.
"We've been on tour a long time, gaining 11 weeks away from home and a long, long way from home and this is something I don't think any cricketer - female cricketer certainly - will ever have done."
"You have some females who are quite emotional at this point in the tour, just missing home and home comforts and being able to switch off from all the excitement and anxiety and the stress that this role comes with," she said.
"When you're having to turn up every day and keep turning on a brave face, it's difficult.
"That wicket certainly brought a lot of feelings out of me and like I said, I felt a lot of relief. Almost too much.
"Keeping it together this whole time and hoping that one day it would click and today was that day."
In the days since beating the Kiwis, Brunt spent time looking forensically at every aspect of her action and that work appeared to immediately bare fruit.
"I've been struggling for a bit of form, which is obviously not anything that no one can't work out by now," she admitted.
"We've been on tour a long time, gaining 11 weeks away from home and a long, long way from home and this is something I don't think any cricketer - female cricketer certainly - will ever have done, and probably won't do in their careers if they play a long career.
Danni Wyatt capped off the victory (Peter Meecham/Getty Images)
"And so you're figuring out how best to work things and normally after a tour, you go home, you go back to the nets, you fix things.
"You have that bit of time before you go back on tour, and we didn't - we haven't had that.
"We had a good Ashes, and had that little low of time and then came back into it and got into bad habits
"I won't point out specifically what the technical thing was - I have spotted it. Thankfully, there is something wrong.
"I worked really hard on it yesterday in the nets, I took it right down to the bare bones of it and drilled a lot yesterday to try and be able to turn up today and make it as natural as possible.
"So I'm certainly going in the right direction."