England crush Sri Lanka

Dilanka Mannakkara

A brilliant all-round performance from captain Charlotte Edwards helped England ease to an eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 at the Nondescript Ground in Colombo.

Edwards picked up three cheap wickets as Sri Lanka were restricted to a paltry 95 for 8, and then guided England’s chase with a fluent, unbeaten 48 as victory was achieved with more than four overs to spare. The Lankan lasses put up a miserable performance with the bat and the bowlers couldn’t do much to restrict the strong English batting line-up. Sri Lanka’s innings got off to a solid, if unspectacular, start before it was seriously dented by three wickets in the sixth over. Off-spinner Danielle Hazell nipped out both openers before Claire Taylor ran Chamari Polgampola out first ball as Sri Lanka slipped to 25 for 3.

Eshani Kaushalya and captain Shashikala Siriwardene set about repairing the innings, but when Kaushalya was caught by Lydia Greenway off Edwards another collapse ensued. Sri Lanka crashed from 60 for 3 to 76 for 8 as Edwards, Laura Marsh and Jenny Gunn ripped through the middle-order. Deepika Rasangika and Sripali Weerakkody put on a quick fire 19 for the ninth wicket to boost the total but Sri Lanka couldn’t quite pass three figures as they ended on 95 for 8.

Edwards and Marsh launched England’s chase with an opening stand of 73 in under 10 overs, quickly putting the result beyond doubt.

England will meet Sri Lanka on Sunday for the second Twenty20 game played at NCC.

Sri Lanka: 95 for 8 (Siriwardene 22, Edwards 3 for 21, Hazell 2 for 15).

England: 99 for 2 (Edwards 48 n.o, Marsh 29, Rasangika 2 for 19).