Colombo, Oct 11 England survived some severe blows to their batting lineup, courtesy of skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt’s brilliant century under pressure, and eventually finished at 253/9 in 50 overs against Sri Lanka in the 12th match of the Women’s World Cup here at the R Premadasa Stadium.
After being put to bat first, openers Amy Jones and Tammy Beumont were dismissed inside the first 10 overs as England finished the powerplay with 50 runs on board. The former and current skipper of the squad, Heather Knight and Sciver-Brunt, then put forth a formidable 60-run partnership to steer the ship.
However, the hosts continued to apply pressure on the batters by picking wickets at regular intervals while Sciver Brunt anchored the innings from one end. England’s middle-order batters, who looked to improve after being exposed against the Bangladeshi bowlers in their previous encounter, faltered again as Inoka Ranaweera ran through the lineup.
Ranaweera, in her 10-over spell, picked up three crucial wickets and dismissed Heather Knight, Emma Lamb, and Alice Capsey, and registered figures of 3/33 at a brilliant economy of 3.30.
Sugandika Kumari, Kavisha Dilhari, and Udeshika Prabodhani worked in tandem to pick wickets as they joined Ranaweera in the celebrations. Earlier at the toss, the Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu had reckoned that keeping England to 200-240 would mean success for them.
Sciver-Brunt, however, tried her best to keep the strike almost till the end of the innings to keep the scoreboard ticking and brought up a brilliant century to take the team’s total to 253.
She was ultimately dismissed off the penultimate ball of the innings while attempting a six off Prabodhani’s yorker, but achieved a historic feat with that knock as she became the player with the most centuries in ODI World Cups, taking her tally to five.
The list was previously dominated by former England batters Janette Brittin and Charlotte Edwards, and New Zealand’s Suzie Bates, who have all notched up four tons in the 50-over World Cup. Courtesy of Sciver-Brunt’s 10th ODI century, England finished their innings on a high.
Brief Scores: England 253/9 in 50 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 117, Tammy Beaumont 32; Inoka Ranaweera 3-33, Udeshika Prabodhani 2-55) vs Sri Lanka.
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