The unbeaten run in the group stage helped India reach first ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final after their semi-final clash against England was washed out in Sydney on Thursday.

Persistent rain since morning delayed the toss and eventually the semi-final was called off without a ball being bowled.

India, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, had topped Group A with four victories in as many matches while England had finished second in Group B with three wins and a defeat. England had ended runners-up in the previous edition.

More politely I suppose we could say that was not a good day administratively for cricket. What’s your immediate response?

HEATHER KNIGHT: Cricket’s a funny sport, isn’t it?

Q. It is when you play it.

HEATHER KNIGHT: Obviously frustrated. There was no chance of us getting out there today, I don’t think. Obviously the weather’s cost us. Yeah, we just – we didn’t have a chance to fight for a place in that final. It was not a lot we could do.

We obviously lost that first game against South Africa which ultimately cost us, but our aim was to make the semi-finals and then hopefully play our best cricket toward that end. And we obviously had that chance taken away from us.

Not having a reserve day, that’s in the playing conditions, but the ACB signed off on those. Every competing board signed off on those. Do you need to have conversations with people when you get home about why they can’t look at the detail in the playing conditions for obvious mistakes like that?

HEATHER KNIGHT: It’s the rules everyone signed up to. You hope now that, obviously there’s been this situation, and the game tonight is essentially going to be rained out as well. You hope now there’s going to be a rule change moving forward. Hopefully it changes. But obviously for us we’re just frustrated it’s come to this.

It would be quite emotional on your team, right? You’ve put a couple of years into building up towards this event and to not actually be able to contest it.

HEATHER KNIGHT: Obviously it’s gutting. You put in a lot of hard work. You want to have the chance to showcase your skills and show that you can perform on the biggest stage and obviously in knock-out games, in World Cups; there’s no bigger stage than that.

Obviously we’re gutted. Not a lot we can do about it. Unfortunately it is what it is. We’ll have to rue that first game and move on. It’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow for a few of us a while.

I know it’s a short turnaround between Thursday and Sunday. As a player, I take it, you wouldn’t have an issue playing a semi-final on Friday and final on Sunday if you had to travel in between?

HEATHER KNIGHT: No, we did it in the last World Cup. If it meant we were going to play of course we wouldn’t have an issue with it. But those are the rules unfortunately and there was no sort of room for wiggle. So there’s not a lot we can do. We can talk about it but it doesn’t change our situation.

How much – did emotions change at all or was it you got to the ground resigned to the fact it probably wasn’t going to happen today?

HEATHER KNIGHT: It looked pretty unlikely from last night, to be fair, that obviously we weren’t going to get a game of cricket. It would be nice not to have the jokes about English weather now. I think 2017 was the least canceled games of any tournament around the world. So that’s one positive to take from today.

You said that the semis were your sort of first aim of this tournament. Just stepping away from what’s happened today do you think the tournament has put you in a good position now to build after what was a very disappointing home summer?

HEATHER KNIGHT: Yeah, definitely. The signs have been really good. Obviously we have that really close game against South Africa, which we fought back really well to take it to that last over. Unfortunately couldn’t get it over the line.

But yeah, I think the signs are really good. We’ve obviously brought in some new players, which has done outstandingly. Sarah Glenn, for me, in particular has been a real find for us. We always thought she’d be great in Australian conditions and she’s gone and proved us massively.

Right in that respect and really Cheffer (phonetic) as well. And we’ve got a couple of young spinners who are doing very well. So the signs are really good. Obviously this one will hurt for a little bit.

But, yeah, we’ll have a little bit of a break. And we’ve obviously got a lot of big tournaments coming up in the next few years, so that’s going to go somebody to drive us to keep pushing forward and keep improving as a side.

Different format next year in New Zealand, but do you expect this squad will form the core to take you through the next 12 months to the World Cup?

HEATHER KNIGHT: It’s not that far away now is it? Less than 12 months. I think we’re really clear on sort of what our best side is at the moment, particularly in T20 cricket. Obviously ODI cricket side a bit different, but we feel we have a good group of players that can go defend that title that we won in 2017.

This tournament was billed as a real turning point for women’s cricket and women sport more broadly. Does today take off any gloss from that point of view?

HEATHER KNIGHT: It’s sad for the tournament. You’ve got four really good teams competing and hoping to play some really good cricket. Obviously that was taken away from us but I’m sure the final will be a great event whoever is there.

Obviously we don’t know the result of the second game but it’s not looking likely either. But I think it’s going to be a great sort of day and game for the sport as a general. And I’ll be there as a fan. Obviously I won’t be there as a player. But I think it has been a brilliant tournament I think it made obviously more of a shame that we lost today.

This tournament has often been about for legacy and women and girls in cricket. And am I right in saying you offered some equipment to some young spectators after the game? Can you talk us through that?

HEATHER KNIGHT: The bat was pretty short, actually. So I’m not sure that will be the best thing; the handle nearly hanging off. But I think the tournament has been outstanding, obviously the way it’s been publicized, the amount of press it’s got, the amount of young girls and boys who have sort of seen cricket.

For girls it’s an equal billing to the boys which has been outstanding. Obviously today is disappointing but it won’t take too much shine off where the sport has gone. And you see if the money’s put into publicizing it and putting it out there, that people do want to come watch it.

You mentioned in the most unambiguous terms that none of your teammates would ever engage in running an on striker out, backing up. Looking back at the South Africa game, do you think that non-dismissal cost you the World Cup?

HEATHER KNIGHT: No.

Sophie Ecclestone, do you see her as someone who could take up the leadership reins in the next few years, the way she’s involved and her being the number one ranked T20 bowler?

HEATHER KNIGHT: Yeah, I think she’s a very good character. Whether she’d be in a leadership role, I’m not too sure if Sophie would want that herself. I think she’s a brilliant young player and she’s brilliant because she has that freedom and she keeps it simple.

She’s a real dominant character, can sort of influence the group in a positive way. So I see her as being a leader of those young girls and showing them ropes in international cricket. And the good thing about Sophie, she never shies away from the big moments. That’s what makes her the best bowler in the world in T20 cricket.

She’s still got a lot of work to do; there’s things she can get better at. And I’d like to see her getting up in the order a few years. She still has a lot to work on in that respect. But she’s a leader in the group already and hopefully that continues.

Putting today in context, there’s obviously been disappointment across your international career. You’ve lost finals. Is this the most disappointing day of your England career?

HEATHER KNIGHT: No. I don’t think so. Obviously it’s been taken out of our hands a little bit with the weather. There’s not a huge amount you can do about it. There’s been lots of disappointment, but we’ll have to move on from this.

It will be a bitter pill, like I said earlier, because we haven’t been able to sort of have our own destiny in our hands. But it’s happened and there’s nothing we can do about it now.

Harmanpreet Kaur said after the game that India had kind of talked about the possibility of a semi-final washout and therefore going into the group stages, thinking why we need to win every game. Was that something you talked about as an England team?

HEATHER KNIGHT: No. Harman must have got a crystal ball out. I’ll have to borrow that from her for the next tournament. No, you don’t think about that. It’s such a unique situation. So, yeah, no, we didn’t discuss it. We just wanted to get to the semifinals and win. We plan to try and win every game that we can.

The stand-out takeaways with regards to your working under Lisa Keightley through this tournament specifically, the standout takeaways with regards to working under the new coach?

HEATHER KNIGHT: Lisa’s very relaxed in how she goes about things that’s and the style I’ve quite enjoyed working with. I feel we’ve built a good relationship. Obviously she hasn’t been in the role for a long time. And obviously before a world event you don’t want to change too much. So I’m sure we’ll sit down together once the dust has settled on this and try and plan the next path to the side where we want to get better, where we want to go as a side. That will be exciting when we get back.

Katherine Brunt, do you see her featuring in England’s ODI setup in the next World Cup?

HEATHER KNIGHT: I hope so, if her back holds up.