MUMBAI, March 23: England romped to a convincing eight-wicket victory over Australia, riding on Natalie Sciver and Tamsin Beaumont�s blistering half-centuries to start their campaign in the Tri-Nation Women�s T20 series on a rousing note, here today.
Opting to field after winning the toss, England restricted the Australians to 149 for eight at the Brabourne Stadium.
Rachael Haynes top-scored for Australia with a 65 off 45 balls. For England, medium pacer Jenny Gunn and Sciver finished with three and two wickets, respectively.
In reply, the English team chased down the target with as many as three overs to spare.
The chase turned out to be a walk in the park as Sciver (68 not out off 43 balls) and Beaumont (58 not out off 44 balls) forged an unbeaten 116-run partnership for the third wicket in just 73 balls.
Beaumonth and Sciver, who play in the Women�s Big Bash League, took a listless Australian bowling to task as they overhauled the target with plenty to spare.
In the process, they steered the team out of trouble from 34 for two. Sciver, who returned with figures of 2-29 before scoring an unbeaten 68, said: �I think, we dragged them back pretty well. We managed to keep taking wickets. The bowlers would have been pretty happy. They could have gone all out and our target could�ve been 180. I think we were happy to keep them down.�
Brief Scores: Australia Women 149/8 in 20 overs (Rachael Haynes 65, Alyssa Healy 31; Jenny Gunn 3-26) lost to England Women 150/2 in 17 overs (Natalie Sciver 68 n.o., Tamsin Beaumont 58 n.o.; D Kimmince 1-12). � PTI
