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World Cup dream becomes reality

Ebony Rainford-Brent Ebony Rainford-Brent | 08:12 UK time, Thursday, 5 March 2009

By Ebony Rainford-Brent, England women's cricket team

The start of the is finally here. This is something I have been building up to for the last five months since being selected, dreaming and thinking about it every spare moment and I am really excited.

We left Heathrow on 19 February with the one goal of staying awake for the 11-hour flight between London and Bangkok and sleeping on the second leg to Sydney. This was intended to help us cope with the different time zones - but I found it hard to avoid dropping off and had to put up with 'Crumpy', our strength and conditioning coach, poking in me in the ear to wake me up again.

Once we arrived in Australia, we caught up with the England girls who had already been out here for a while playing grade cricket and then went to support them in their last game - as well as checking out some of the Aussie players we might be facing in the World Cup.

But the moment I had been looking forward to was getting out onto grass for our first practice. I had built it up in my head to be the best net session I had ever taken part in and it turned out to be.....absolutely awful! I couldn't work it out. A few days before I felt like hot stuff training in Guildford, but now I couldn't time a ball to save my life.

Ebony Rainford-BrentLuckily, I was able to talk to more experienced members of the squad and our coach , and they assured me I hadn't lost it in the space of a couple of days - but it would take a few days to get into the swing of things.

They were right. Over the next few days I too every opportunity to face bowling or throw-downs in the nets and eventually things started to feel right again.

We had three games lined up before the World Cup against New South Wales Breakers, Australia and West Indies and it was great to play in the first as I hadn't been out on the field running around since our training camp in Bangalore last November. I had learnt so much in India, including fielding tips from former South Africa coach , and was eager to try it all out - I couldn't wait.

The Breakers batted first but 'Nunny' (Katherine Brunt), our opening bowler, was on top form, finding a perfect line and length and moving it off the pitch. We gelled as a unit, .

Afterwards, it was time for the dreaded . They are something I dislike, but I'm fully aware that every little percentage helps us towards our ultimate goal of reaching the World Cup final on 22 March.

We were given the next day off, possibly the only one for the whole tour, so some of us decided to head to . The waves were fierce, but the weather was nice and hot, so it was a real fun treat.

England celebrate a wicket against AustraliaGame two was a much tougher challenge, playing Australia, the World Cup holders. We knew not to expect too much as it was only our second match together and some of us were still acclimatising. They made 214 batting first, with Alex Blackwell making 91 not out, but we were delighted to get Australian captain Karen Rolton lbw for a first-ball duck.

We started our innings well and Lottie (Charlotte Edwards) made 72 and at 150-5, the game was set up nicely, but a few silly run-outs meant we were all out for 189. We were absolutely gutted, having laid the foundations for a good, solid win.

This was a massive wake-up call for the girls. We know we're a good side, but we can't afford mistakes like giving away wickets with run-outs. Still, it was a good lesson to learn before the start of the real competition and we bounced back yesterday with a .

We start the tournament against Sri Lanka on Saturday and now that the batters and bowlers have all had time in the middle, we are confident we can do well in the first round.

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