England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt returns for T20 World Cup semi-final

The 33-year-old returns to face South Africa at the Oval after being ‘put through my recovery paces’

Nat Sciver-Brunt will return to captain England in their T20 World Cup semi-final against South Africa at the Oval after being “put through my recovery paces”.

The 33-year-old missed the last three matches of the group stages after retiring hurt against Ireland with a recurrence of the calf injury she sustained in April.

Since then, England’s medical staff have pulled out all the stops to get her back to fitness, including seven hour-long sessions of magnetic resonance therapy, which involves “sitting for an hour and not moving, with my leg in a horseshoe-shaped thing” according to Sciver-Brunt.

On her overall fitness, she said: “I’ve been put through my recovery paces, and worked really hard to get myself to this position. I’m really happy to be sat here.”

Having been tipped to return on Saturday for the nine-wicket thumping of New Zealand, it was decided she would benefit from a longer recovery time given that England had already reached the semi-finals.

Even now there is an element of risk, with a clear sense that the decision has been made partly because this is a high-stakes home semi-final.

Sciver-Brunt batted in the nets on Wednesday but was not involved in any outdoor fielding sessions. “We’ve tested it [my calf] enough to be comfortable,” she said. “Myself and the medical team are really happy with where we’re at. Everything has gone to plan as well as it could do.”

She refused to confirm who would be dropped to make way for her, but the most likely option is a straight swap at No 3 for Sophia Dunkley. Dunkley has hit winning knocks of 57 against Scotland and 49 not out against New Zealand, but the head coach, Charlotte Edwards is known to favour continuity in the batting order and so is unlikely to want to disrupt it for a knockout game. “Lots of different people have stood up,” Sciver-Brunt said. “Someone’s going to be really disappointed tomorrow.”

Given how capably the vice-captain, Charlie Dean, has deputised for Sciver-Brunt, there had been some suggestion that Sciver-Brunt might return as a pure batter to relieve some of the pressure, but she said this had never been on the cards. “[Dean] is happy to pass it [the captaincy] back – she said she definitely didn’t want to do any more media,” Sciver-Brunt joked.

South Africa go into this semi-final as huge underdogs, facing a team who are unbeaten in this tournament, in front of what is likely to be a partisan capacity crowd.

By contrast to England, the Proteas have struggled with the bat, losing their opener to Australia and limping across the line in close contests against Pakistan and Bangladesh. That said, England have a poor recent record against them in knockouts. South Africa beat the odds back in the 2023 semi-final at Newlands to knock England.

“Being from Cape Town, that was a really cool day,” the South Africa captain and opener Laura Wolvaardt said. “I had all my family and friends in the crowd. Our team hasn’t changed too much since then so we’ve got a lot of people that are able to draw on that experience. This is a team that is able to rise to the big occasions. It should give us confidence knowing that we’ve done it before.”

Sciver-Brunt is treating the match as a clean slate. “It’s different to how we felt in the previous World Cup, or the last two years,” she said.

“It feels now that everyone has settled into the way we’re doing things and have really grown in confidence in their abilities. As a team you go through different ups and downs as you go through tournaments, but the vibes are high.”