Women’s World Cup: England captain Heather Knight calls for knockout mentality after shock loss to West Indies

England slumped to a second straight defeat in New Zealand, failing to chase down the 226 victory target to leave their World Cup campaign in the balance.

Shemaine Campbelle’s 66 and Chedean Nation’s unbeaten 49 helped steer the West Indies to 225-6, but England faltered on an eminently achievable chase.

England captain Knight called on her side to sharpen focus to shake off a demoralising opening to the tournament.

“We need to have a knockout mindset now,” Knight said.

“The next game is crucial. So we have to bring that mindset of needing to win every game and that simplifies things.

“Hopefully that will sharpen people up, sharpen people’s minds to what we need to do beecause at the moment we’re fighting for our lives.

“There’s a lot of experience in this group, we’ve lost games before and we know we can’t dwell on defeats too much.”

Tammy Beaumont hit 46, with Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt and Sophie Ecclestone all reaching the mid-30s.

But England’s middle order failed to launch, teeing up a second quick disappointment at the top of the competition.

Shamilia Connell took 3-38 as England wound up 218 all out.

England will face South Africa in Tauranga on Monday, knowing full well improvements must come, and fast, to turn the current troubles on their head.

“We’ve made it tricky for ourselves, but there’s no way are we out of this World Cup yet,” added Knight.

“So we have to focus on the next game, get what we can from this game, park it and move on to be ready for South Africa.

“We were clear on our plans - we just didn’t quite execute, at times.

“They finished pretty strongly, and it’s something we can do better with the last 10 overs.

“It’s something we’ll look at and keep improving, our back-end stuff.”