A 133-run-stand in the Eliminator against the Gujarat Giants, several big ones over the last three seasons. And don’t forget the equally lethal bowling partnerships the two get into. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews have been rewriting the records here at the Brabourne Stadium. The former was at the post-match press conference, talking about everything that’s going right with her game. Excerpts..

On her superb partnership with Hayley

Apart from this tournament, I haven’t really batted with Hayley (Matthews), but we seemed to click pretty well from the first year. Today, she wanted to go off after a quicker start, but it was good she stayed out there and didn’t give her wicket away. We know how powerful she is. She timed it a bit better after the time-out. I was just reassuring her that you only need to time it, you don’t need to whack it. But it is very hard to remember sometimes when you are opening the batting, trying to get off to a good start and tying to take advantage of the powerplay. She had a great innings today.

On her conversations with Hayley when she walked out to bat

She spoke to me about the movement of the ball. I could see it wasn’t coming off really well because we played the other day and it came on nicer. I felt the wicket was a little bit stoppy and it played into our hands with back-foot shots, which are both mine and Hayley’s strengths. Working together to get to that point was important.

Whether she was surprised when Ash Gardener didn’t bowl her quota of overs

In different games she hasn’t bowled all four. If a left-hander stays out longer, she might bowl again. With the other bowlers, she probably had a tricky job today as Deandra Dottin wasn’t playing today.

On Shabnim Ismail’s starts with the ball

Shab (Shabnim) starts us off with the ball and sets the tone really, really well. She bowls with aggression and pace, and the swing she’s got is more this year than the other years. Against their batters, we would want to use the seam a little bit more, she’s obviously a great asset to have in the team. Hayley as well, she can contribute anywhere in the field and has found her feet towards the back end of the tournament, which is great news for us.

On what has worked for her this season in comparison to 2024

To be honest, I am not too sure. I haven’t done anything different in terms of my preparation or how I go about my innings. I have stuck to my strengths quite a lot and have played what is in front of me. The quick outfields have helped. These are nice wickets to bat on as well. I’m really happy that I am taking advantage of these conditions because form goes up and down. That feeling when you are not so confident isn’t that nice. So taking advantage of it when you are feeling it is really important.

Thoughts on the Final

We’ll see what the wicket looks like. It was probably a blessing in disguise, batting first. We sort of knew what sort of bowling we needed to put out there. Equally, we have played on wickets that are really true and have great bounce and carry. As a side, we’ll recover really well. It’s only two days away and we’ll make sure we are really well prepared for the match.