Alice Capsey Stars as England Secure T20 Series Opener Against New Zealand

England got off to a winning start in their T20 series against New Zealand at Derby, after Alice Capsey struck an unbeaten 74 from 51 balls – her highest score for England and her first T20i half-century since July 2024.

Capsey has generally batted at No 3 for England but was promoted to open in place of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who is missing this series because of the imminent birth of her first child. Capsey made full use of the extra time, smoking three sixes and seven fours as England chased down their 137-run target with seven wickets and 16 balls to spare.

Hers was a more restrained innings than that of New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, who wellied four sixes over midwicket but crashed and burned for 45, bowled by Dani Gibson when she failed to connect with a straight one.

By contrast, Capsey initially shared a measured partnership with Heather Knight which centred around effective strike rotation, before moving through the gears with Freya Kemp. With the start of the World Cup now only three weeks away, she has chosen exactly the right time to rediscover some swagger.

“I’ve had some really productive conversations over the last couple of days with Lottie [head coach Charlotte Edwards] and [Alex] Gidman, our batting coach,” Capsey said. “The biggest messaging from them was that I didn’t need to change how I play. I didn’t need to try and go out there and strike at 150. Batting my way was good enough to do the job.”

As the World Cup looms, these T20s – three against New Zealand and three against India – should give England the chance to polish away any rustiness, having last played a T20 international 10 months ago. Their ring fielding certainly looked sharp enough.

“We’ve worked so hard on all facets of our game and I feel like today showcased that,” Capsey said. “To keep them below 140 was outstanding.”

Nat Sciver-Brunt remains absent nursing a calf tear – though we are assured the captain will be fit for the T20 World Cup. But injuries aside, this was presumably something approximating to England’s World Cup starting XI, with Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith as the chosen spin triumvirate, Lauren Bell as their one frontline seamer, and no space for the 18-year-old Tilly Corteen-Coleman, uncapped in this format.

The course of play offered an intriguing insight into England’s World Cup strategy: Bell and Smith opened the bowling, while Kemp sent down her first two overs for England since January 2025, after an ongoing battle to recover from a stress fracture in her back.

Bell started the match in dramatic fashion after Georgia Plimmer bottom-edged on to her own stumps off the first ball. Meanwhile Smith claimed the huge scalp of the New Zealand captain, Melie Kerr, who drove straight to Bell at mid-off.

Kemp’s bowling return offered some encouragement, although the jury is still out as to whether she can regain the express pace which made her such a potent threat when she was first called up as a 17-year-old.

The oddest thing of all, though, was that Ecclestone, the world No 2, finished up by far the most expensive of the six bowlers. It feels sacrilegious, but if Edwards is really serious about getting Corteen-Coleman into her XI, it may be that she has to do the unthinkable and omit Ecclestone.

But that is a decision for another day; for now, time simply to celebrate a winning start.