An incredible display of death batting from Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson ensured England put an unassailable total on the board to sweep aside Scotland at Headingley.

That death phase is even more remarkable when you remember that England scored just 4 runs, for the loss of the wicket of Heather Knight, in the 17th over. But the wicket of Knight could not have come at a more opportune time for England, bringing Gibson to the crease to hit the 11 balls she faced for 30; whilst at the other end, Kemp finished with 39 off 16.

Kemp and Gibson between them hit three 6s and eight 4s in the last 3 overs, turning a total of 175-ish into exactly 200 with a 4 off the final ball. Even when they couldn’t find the boundary, they found runs between the wickets – the dots conceded by England in overs 17-20? Zero!

England were already in a strong position after Sophia Dunkley, effectively opening the batting after Amy Jones was caught of the first ball of the game, top-scored with 57 off 37. Dunkley was only in the XI because of Nat Sciver-Brunt’s absence, having endured something of a rough patch of late, and today wasn’t really any different. Every cricket fan knows the lovely sound a ball makes off the bat when the striker has really middled it, and Dunkley’s first two boundaries today were prime examples of hits that very much did not make that sound. (Though to be fair to Dunks… she must actually be hitting it pretty hard to find the boundary with the toe-end!) Thereafter she was assisted by some embarrassing fielding from Scotland on the boundary, shovelling the ball over the rope on several occasions, and dropping her more often than Charlotte Edwards has this summer. But they say if you can’t be good be lucky; and Dunks absolutely was that today – it might be a very good day for her to buy a lottery ticket if nothing else!

When Dunkley finally encountered a Rainey day, caught in the deep by Hannah Rainey, England stuck with their predefined batting order, sending in Heather Knight to accompany Alice Capsey. I do worry slightly that Knight and Capsey are too similar in style these days to bat together, though with Knight expected to retire in the quite near future I accept that this isn’t a long term problem I should actually be concerning myself about. But I do think generally a little more flexibility could be to England’s benefit.

Nonetheless, today it worked out perfectly – Knight got out; England finished; Scotland got schooled.

Scotland’s response was always going to be governed by the knowledge that there was no way in hell they were going to hit 201, even on a nice new pitch with an outfield which seems to have an extra yard of pace built-in. This allowed them to play with that extra bit of freedom that they lacked here against the Windies on Thursday – a game they’d have won with 5 balls to spare on tonight’s batting performance.

On the other side of the coin, England did not bowl well; but sometimes it is hard to bowl well when you know you don’t really need to. Sophie Ecclestone picked up a couple of wickets, but still appears some way off her best; while Charlie Dean also looked a bit out of sorts. Linsey Smith was expensive, with the Scottish batters showing that as long as you don’t play across the line to her, you can take her for runs; while Lauren Bell really needs to find a way of approaching her death overs that isn’t “5 slower balls plus a bouncer off the 5th delivery” which is starting to become visible from space. Tonight they got away with it; but the bigger questions are yet to be asked, and probably won’t be until the semifinals.

Talking of which… England are not quite qualified, but they have sufficient momentum behind them now that they can probably even afford a slip-up. At the other end of the table, Ireland are still in it mathematically, but will go out if the West Indies beat Sri Lanka in Bristol tomorrow.