ICC Women's World Twenty20 Final: England v New Zealand
England's women will have a remarkable world title double in their sights when they take on New Zealand at Lord's.
Having won the World Cup final by four wickets just three months ago, they meet the White Ferns again in the first Women's World Twenty20 final on Sunday.
Both teams have a 100% record in the competition and were impressive in contrasting semi-final victories.
England skipper Charlotte Edwards said the final would be "the biggest game of our lives in front of a home crowd".
And the team have been given as much rest time as possible after an emotionally draining win over Australia at The Oval on Friday when they successfully chased down a daunting target of 164.
"The girls are the most professional group you're ever going to meet. We want to win this final and we're not going to leave anything to chance," said Edwards.
"We're desperate to win another World Cup and we'll be doing everything we possibly can to do that."
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The match will not be the first final at the home of cricket between the two sides as England beat New Zealand by 67 runs in the final of the 1993 World Cup.
That was England's last victory in a major final until Edwards and her team triumphed in Sydney in March and she added: "The girls are very relaxed now in the sense that they know how to deal with the big occasion and that's something we can take into the game."
And they have had words of support from male counterparts Paul Collingwood, England's Twenty20 captain and Test skipper Andrew Strauss.
Collingwood said: "Congratulations on reaching yet another World Cup final, it's a fantastic achievement.
"Good luck for Sunday's final, we're right behind you and will be watching closely as you continue to do us proud.
And Strauss added: "To have consistently maintained such an outstanding level of performance is a credit to all the hard work you and the rest of the team have put in."
England may be unchanged despite seamers Katherine Brunt and Nicky Shaw proving expensive against Australia, although Isa Guha would provide a steady alternative.
New Zealand, meanwhile, will again look to skipper Aimee Watkins for inspiration.
She is the highest run-scorer in the competition, with 198 from four innings at an amazing strike-rate of 140, but they are far from a one-woman team.
| ICC TWENTY20 - TOP RUN SCORERS A Watkins (NZ) 198 in 4 matches; SR 140.4 C Taylor (Eng) 160 in 4 matches; SR 139.1 S Bates (NZ) 135 in 4 matches; SR 109.8 S Nitschke (Aus) 130 in 4 matches, SR 136.8 C Edwards (Eng) 130 in 4 matches; SR 117.1 |
Suzie Bates is another powerful ball-striker at the top of the order and left-arm medium-pacer Sian Ruck, who did not play in the World Cup, has done well with the new ball.
"Because the England top order has been going so well for the last 18 months, the middle order hasn't had many opportunities out in the middle.
"We think if we can expose that middle order we might be able to put some pressure on them," said Watkins.
"We haven't really been tested in any of our matches, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
"We're all feeling pretty good about ourselves and I think we're still on the way up - so hopefully we'll hit that high and really peak when we need to," she added.
England (from): C Edwards (capt), C Atkins, K Brunt, H Colvin, I Guha, J Gunn, L Greenway, D Hazell, B Morgan, N Shaw, L Marsh, E Rainford-Brent, C Taylor, S Taylor.
New Zealand (from): A Watkins (capt), A Satterthwaite, S Bates, N Browne, S Bullen, S Devine, L Doolan, V Lind, K Martin, S McGlashan, R Priest, K Pulford, S Ruck, S Tsukigawa.
Umpires: A Dar (Pkn), R Koertzen (SA); Match referee A Hurst (Aus)
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