Women’s World Cup: Sciver-Brunt’s blistering ton takes England to victory over Sri Lanka

COLOMBO(Sri Lanka):England continued its unbeaten run and leapfrogged to the top of the table with an emphatic 89-run victory over Sri Lanka at the ongoing World Cup on Saturday in Colombo.

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt led her team with a blistering 117(117) from the front as the rest of her compatriots perished against Sri Lanka’s spin-laden attack. After being put to bat, she notched her 10th ODI ton to take England to a competitive 253/9. While defending the total, Sophie Ecclestone dazzled with her ball-tweaking ability and returned with a four-wicket haul to set up a dominant win for England.

While pursuing a 254-run target, Sri Lanka’s opening pair added just 17 runs on the board before skipper Chamari Athapaththu was stretchered off the ground in the sixth over. Vishmi Gunaratne arrived at the crease and struck consecutive boundaries off Lauren Bell to swing the momentum in Sri Lanka’s favour.

However, before she could inflict further damage, Gunaratne (10) was outdone by a ripper from Charlie Dean. The ball sharply turned into her and went through her bat and pad to rattle the timber. Harshitha Samarawickrama joined Hasini Perera and stitched a 58-run partnership off 66 deliveries.

Sri Lanka steadily moved to 89/1 after 18 overs and looked well poised to gun down the target. However, the world number one-ranked Women’s ODI bowler, Ecclestone, tightened England’s grip on the game. She removed Perera on 35, who chipped the ball straight to mid-on.

Samarawickrama was next to follow on 33(37) after top-edging a sweep off Ecclestone. Kavisha Dilhari (4) was outfoxed by an arm ball, which led to the return of Athapaththu. She didn’t last long after being outfoxed by Ecclestone’s turning and gripping delivery that went past the Sri Lankan spinner and crashed into the stumps.

Wickets kept falling, as England’s night ended with England skipper Sciver-Brunt rolling her arm and scythed wickets of Anushka Sanjeewani and Dewmi Vihanga as Sri Lanka folded on 164 in 45.4 overs.

Earlier in the innings, England got off to a composed start with Tammy Beaumont slamming 32 off 29, before Amy Jones was run out on 11. Beaumont sliced the ball to Harshitha Madavi off Sugandika Kumari in the 10th over.

Sciver-Brunt, who was fundamental to England’s success with the bat, was dropped by Udeshika Prabodhani off Inoka Ranaweera on three in the 14th over. She forged a 60-run partnership from 73 with Heather Knight to keep England’s scoreboard ticking.

After the partnership ended with Knight’s dismissal on 29 (47) in the 22nd over against the run of play, wickets continued to fall, and Sciver-Brunt kept England on track to a competitive total. From 141/3 in the 31st over, England found themselves reduced to 168/6 in a span of barely three overs.

England struck just two boundaries between the 40th and 48th over. The English skipper accelerated in the last two overs and struck 28 runs, before falling on the second-last delivery against Udeshika Prabodhani to finish with 253/9 on the board. (ANI)