England captain Heather Knight believes Scotland will be “desperate” to defeat her side when the two teams meet at the T20 World Cup on Sunday.

England are targeting a spot in the semi-finals and will be aiming to maintain their perfect start to the tournament against Scotland.

Scotland come into the contest with nothing to lose after an 80-run defeat to South Africa on Wednesday knocked them out of the competition, but Knight is expecting a tough battle in Sharjah.

Speaking ahead of the match, she said: “I think they’re going to come really hard at us and we’re totally prepared for that. They haven’t got a lot to lose and they’ll be desperate to take us down.

Heather Knight batting
Knight is expecting a tricky contest against Scotland (Richard Sellers/PA)

“We know that’s the case and we’ve just got try and bring our best cricket.

“I think we’ve built some really nice momentum from the last couple of games and learned a lot about the conditions and are really starting to come into our own with how we best go about it.

“I’m sure the press will be talking up the rivalry with the old England, Scots, William Wallace sort of thing! We just want to bring our best cricket.

“It’s pretty cool that Scotland are in a World Cup, we know some of their players quite well, a lot of them play in English domestic leagues. It should be good fun and hopefully we can come out on top.”

England have so far recorded two victories in this year’s tournament, beating both Bangladesh and South Africa and have two more games remaining in the group stages.

https://x.com/englandcricket/status/1844722805843071195

Knight’s side have had a five-day break since their seven-wicket win over the Proteas Women on Monday, something the skipper admits is unusual in World Cup competitions.

“It’s a bit of a weird one to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a World Cup where you’ve had such a big break and so many games going on in between,” she said.

“But it did give us a chance to have a bit of a reset, a couple of days to have a bit of space and recharge, then go again and refocus on what we’re trying to do.

“It was a bit of a weird one but hopefully we’re now back on task, refocused and ready for what’s going to be a huge few days for us to hopefully make it into that semi-final.”

England face a new challenge on Sunday competing in a hotter daytime climate having played their previous two games in the evening, but Knight believes her side are physically prepared for the game.

She said: “No beating around the bush, it’s really, really hot. Obviously very hot and sweaty, we’ve been training a lot during the day so I guess we’re used to that, despite having played at night.

“The conditions might be something different, albeit there hasn’t been any dew so far in this competition because it simply hasn’t dropped low enough at night to form.

“The preparations have been a long time in planning with the fitness that we’ve done, as a group we’re in a pretty good place physically.”