Alice Capsey relished her maiden role as a T20I opener, her unbeaten 74 off 51 balls to ease England to victory in the opening match of their series against New Zealand proof of the mindset she took in, to play her natural game.
Capsey was promoted from her usual No. 3 spot to pair with Sophia Dunkley at the top of the order in Derby on Wednesday night while regular opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge awaits the arrival of her baby daughter.
After steering her side to a seven-wicket win by overhauling the target of 137 with 16 balls to spare, she was uncertain whether she might be asked to reprise her role at next month's T20 World Cup. But her innings showcased the sort of versatility England's opponents would envy.
"That's above my pay-grade, but I figure if I keep scoring runs and I put a question to them, that's all I can do as a player," Capsey said. "Pretty fun in the end. A few nerves kicking around."
Those nerves could have escalated when Dunkley fell in the third over, but thanks to conversations with England head coach Charlotte Edwards and batting coach Alex Gidman, Capsey said she was in a calm place by then.
"The biggest messaging from them was that I didn't need to change how I play," Capsey said. "I didn't need to try and go out there and strike at 150, batting my way was good enough to do the job.
"I think it showed. I was two off eight to begin with, but I guess once you give yourself an opportunity, that's when you can kind of capitalise."
She credited Heather Knight and Freya Kemp with supporting her through partnerships worth 43 and 64 respectively. The latter unbroken stand was particularly pleasing from an England perspective as Kemp builds towards the World Cup after a lengthy battle with a back problem.
Kemp struck five fours on her way to an unbeaten 31 off 20 and conceded 16 runs off two wicketless overs, bowling for the first time since England's tour of Australia in January 2025.
England's bowling innings set the scene for Capsey's star turn later. Lauren Bell struck first ball to remove Georgia Plimmer on her way to 2 for 23 while Linsey Smith was scrooge-like in taking 1 for 10 from her four overs with 15 dot-balls.
"We've worked so hard on all facets of our game and I feel like today showcased that a little bit," Capsey said. "It wasn't the easiest ground to field on, but the one thing that we spoke about going into this game was, as a group, if our inputs are there, then we know what we can control and really focusing on them. We did that today in the field, with the ball and in the end with the bat."
Sophie Devine resisted for as long as she could with a boundary-laden 45 off 22 including four sixes in her first match of New Zealand's tour, but when she was bowled by Dani Gibson, the White Ferns couldn't recover.
"It's always a funny one when you come in halfway through a tour or having not played - it wasn't even that long, a couple of months - but you do have a sense of freedom and you don't really know how it's going to go," Devine said.
"Disappointing to get out when I did. I think that was a bit of a turning point. If I could have stayed in even for another couple of overs, we could have posted 150 and it could have been a different story. But still a lot of positives to take out of it.
"I don't know how much credit I can take because it was blowing a decent gale out there, so I just put it up in the air and the wind sort of took charge of it," Devine added with typical modesty, having struck three of her maximums off one Sophie Ecclestone over.
"It's always nice to put a few over the rope, especially against Eccles. She's a world-class bowler and to bop her for a few is always nice, but I think that's a challenge and the beauty of it. I'm sure she's going to come back hunting my poles next game."
Among the positives she highlighted were Izzy Sharp's ball-striking in an important sixth-wicket partnership with Maddy Green which added 36 runs to New Zealand's total, and the shot selection by Izzy Gaze who hit two fours in a 19-ball 12 as opener. But Devine was disappointed with how her team played Smith in particular.
"Taking nothing away from Linsey, she was really effective and really coy with the way that she changed her pace," Devine said. "We hit the ball hard. We just hit it straight back at her. I don't know how many times we hit the ball straight back at her - which is something that we talk at length about, we want to hit the ball hard and straight - it's just unfortunate that it went straight to her hands.
"We've got to address that because you can't allow any bowler in the T20 format to go for that few runs in a game. Good learnings for us. How can we manipulate the crease? How can we put her off her game? But credit's got to go to her, she played really well, she bowled the conditions and put us under the pump."
The sides play the second match of their three-game series at Canterbury on Saturday followed by Hove on Monday.