T20 World Cup: How hard work and a disco jacket helped England improve their fielding

There is, of course, more to England’s improvement than a coach dressing like an ABBA tribute act.

Fitness and fielding were two of coach Charlotte Edwards’ priorities when she took over after the Ashes defeat. She has calmly quietened talk of the issue.

In one of her previous roles at Southern Vipers, Edwards used an electric scooter to follow and observe her players during their fitness sessions and one of her first moves after becoming England coach was introducing minimum fitness standards.

The new standards include a two-kilometre time trial, 30m two-way sprints (effectively shuttle runs), a test to assess explosiveness through a squat and a vertical leap, and another which gauges a player’s maximum velocity.

England posted clips from the gruelling sessions on their social media accounts at the start of the season. Videos of boat parties posted on players’ own accounts are long gone under Edwards.

Wilton has been given free rein to improve England’s fielding. Without any international fixtures this winter, he was able to work with the players on their training camps in Oman, Stellenbosch and Pretoria.

There were more training sessions in the early-season gatherings at Millfield and Repton schools and at England’s cricket centre in Loughborough.

“Progress happens with dedication over time and putting the work in,” Dean said.

“All our careers we put in the work but especially the last year.”

With the players buying in, there has also been a greater attention to detail.

Dani Gibson, Freya Kemp and Linsey Smith – three fielders who often share the job of patrolling the boundary – practise their high catches or sprints to retrieve and return the ball.

The powerful Gibson, one of England’s quickest players across the ground, has repeatedly denied batters second runs with her quick work in this tournament – no more so than in the early stages against South Africa.

Bowler Lauren Bell regularly attempts flying one-handed catches in training – the type of opportunities that come in her position of short fine leg.

It is obvious but appears to be working.

“Being that extra bit more detailed in what we are trying to do has put us in great stead,” Dean said.

And now there is one match remaining – Sunday’s final against Australia. There would be no better opposition against whom to reinforce their improvement.

“Lottie coming in after the Ashes when we were pretty poor, it is obviously something we wanted to work on as a team and we’ve had commitment from everyone to do that,” captain Nat Sciver-Brunt said.

“The plan from Lottie in how we do that has been executed by Nick, who encourages us to push ourselves as far as we can in the field and not put a ceiling on anything we do.”

The work – and the jacket – has got England this far.

Can they continue it under the most intense pressure?