ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, warm-up: Sarah Taylor, Heather Knight’s heroics, Anya Shrubsole’s 3-wicket haul help England thrash Sri Lanka by 8 wickets

While Heather remained unbeaten on 32, Sarah missed 50 by a mere run.

England Women’s all-round performance took them to an 8-wicket win against Sri Lanka Women, at Chesterfield, in the second warm-up game of ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. Captain Heather Knight and wicketkeeper-batter Sarah Taylor added unbeaten 78-run stand to ease to victory. While Heather remained unbeaten on 32, Sarah missed 50 by a mere run. For Sri Lanka, skipper Inoka Ranaweera and Oshadi Ranasinghe shared wicket apiece. However, Eshani Lokusuriyage and Chandima Gunaratne proved expensive leaking 24 runs each. For England, Anya Shrubsole aced with figures of 3 for 27 while Chamari Atapattu was the top-scorer with 88-ball 33. Full Cricket Updates: ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, warm-up’s

Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont began the chase with much ease, adding 66 runs for the opening wicket. However, Inoka and Oshadi took a wicket apiece and slowed down the proceedings. England needed just 78 to win from 37 overs. Sarah and Heather smashed 4 fours ending the chase with 118 balls to spare.

Sri Lanka, after winning the toss, were off to shaky start. They lost opener Nipuni Hansika earl, while the others started off well but could not convert them into big starts.

Hasini Perera and Chamari Polgampola began with a few boundaries after the first wicket but the latter was caught comfortably by wicketkeeper Sarah. Change of bowling also worked the trick for England, and Hasini threw her wicket to Danielle Wyatt.

Georgia Elwiss’ third over proved to be vital for England. Fran Wilson ran Dilani Manodara out for 9. The only highest partnership between Prasadani Weerakkody and Chamari of 51 runs was also broken as the former handed a simple catch to Lauren. It was followed by Chamari caught comfortably by Sarah and skipper Heather getting her only wicket.

Anya was on a wicket-taking spree when she picked Sripali Weerakkody and Eshani in succession. Thereafter, it was over to Shashikala Siriwardene and Dilani who added 33 runs for the ninth wicket until Brunt bowled the former for 17.

Dilani and Udeshika Prabodhani built the momentum taking Sri Lanka to 155. Dilani was caught by Danielle handing Georgia her first, while Udeshika remained unbeaten on 6.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka Women 155 all in 47.2 overs (Chamari Atapattu 33, Prasadani Weerakkody 23; Anya Shrubsole 3 for 27) lost to England Women 156 for 2 in 30.2 overs (Lauren Winfield 35, Sarah Taylor 49*; Inoka Ranaweera 1 for 21) by 8 wickets with 118 balls to spare.