'We're peaking at the right time' England captain Heather Knight pleased with World Cup momentum

With three consecutive losses at the start of the tournament, England's chances of defending the World Cup looked extremely slim.

However, four wins on the bounce against India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh was enough to lift them into the top four and the semi-finals.

It'll be a tough ask for England to reach the final, but captain Heather Knight says the side will head into the match feeling positive after a "remarkable turnaround".

Ahead of the match, Knight said "I think it shows the character we've got in this group to pick ourselves up after a pretty poor start to the competition and obviously qualifying.

"Really excited to be in the semi-finals, a repeat obviously of 2017, that semi-final against South Africa.

"So we're really in a good place, built a good bit of momentum over the last few games and I feel like we're peaking at the right time hopefully and looking forward to Thursday."

The poor start to the World Cup campaign followed a disappointing Ashes loss, and Knight admitted that her side found it difficult to return to winning ways.

When asked what was key to the side's upturn of form, Knight said: "I think not panicking to be honest.

"Obviously we were very frustrated and very disappointed with how things have gone, but I think realising that there's still a good chance of us qualifying was quite important.

"Also realising that a lot of things that haven't gone our way in those close games were things that were under our control, things like fielding, extras, things that we can control, so trying to work out a way to improve those things, trying to get individuals in a slightly better place and keep things generally positive really, trying to take one game at a time.

England's World Cup campaign resumes on Thursday, March 31, with their match against South Africa set to start at around 02:00 GMT.