Women’s World Cup 2025: Nat Sciver-Brunt relishes balancing parenthood with cricketing brilliance

It’s never easy to strike balance between jobs and taking care of a new family, especially when you’re the captain of England women’s cricket team in the middle of an important ODI World Cup campaign.

Help, therefore, becomes key, and Nat Sciver-Brunt made sure to doff her hat to the support system she has for her six-month-old son Theo, who watched her score a match-winning hundred against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium here on Saturday.

“There’s a good group of traveling support with us who we are happy to see babysit Theo. It’s really nice to travel with your family and have some other partners around to help,” Nat told reporters after the game.

The 33-year-old played a masterful knock, negotiating tricky conditions and wickets falling fairly regularly at the other end, to give England a comfortable score to defend. She brought up a historic ton, her fifth in World Cups, with a six over extra cover. She took off her helmet, turned to the hospitality box where her family was seated, and whipped out the Bebeto rocking baby celebration.

“I’d sort of spoken about it a little bit with Katherine (Sciver-Brunt, former England fast bowler), but you never know if you’re going to get another hundred, I suppose. So, yeah, it was in the back of my mind a little bit. They’ve come out to Sri Lanka to watch me, so I thought I’d give back for their supporting me.”

The Sciver-Brunt pack was together when England spent a few weeks in Abu Dhabi as part of a preparation camp for the World Cup. Nat thought she had said her goodbyes for a few weeks.

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“It (their visit to Colombo) wasn’t planned at the start. It was a really nice bonus for Katherine to be able to come out here. I am glad I made it worth her while.”

Through England’s nervy run-up to the 50-over showpiece which saw a number of humbling defeats too, Nat has been rock solid with the bat for the side. The pressures of captaincy barely made a scratch on her batting and that’s helped the side end up on the right side of games.

“I don’t really think much about leading the team when I am batting. I may pick up things here and there, about the wicket and what would be best for our bowlers, but when I’m a batter, I’m a batter. I have worked on trying to focus on that one thing at a time. With bowling, that’s a bit different and I lean on Charlie (Dean) more as vice-captain to make sure I am clear. There obviously is a lot to think about with captaincy, but, yeah, it’s something I’m enjoying so far.”

Unbeaten so far in the tournament, England will remain on Lankan shores for their fixture against Pakistan on October 15, before heading to Indore for the all-important game against India on October 19.

Published on Oct 12, 2025

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