Didn't allow Sri Lankan spinners to settle, says England skipper Sciver-Brunt

Colombo, Oct 11 (PTI) England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt attributed her century and big victory against Sri Lanka in the Women's World Cup match here on Saturday to not allowing the rival spinners to settle down on a pitch that was slow and offering quite a bit of turn.

England registered a massive 89-run win against the home team by scoring 253/9 and then dismissing Sri Lanka for 164. This is the former champions' third successive win in the tournament and propelled Sciver-Brunt's side to the top of the points table.

"Not letting spinners settle, using lap sweeps, it's good to have that in your armoury," said Sciver-Brunt, who played a match-winning knock of 117 off as many deliveries, after the win.

"The pitch was a bit stoppy, inconsistent. Happy I was able to do that (score a century) today. Their spinners bowled well, so we had to be precise with our shots. Scoring down the ground was my best bet," she added.

The Player of the Match said that her plan was to build a partnership with top-order batter Heather Knight, so that the players coming later on could accelerate.

"It didn't quite happen, but we talk about having a set batter in," said Nat-Sciver as she lost her partner Knight (29 runs) early in the innings.

Opener Tammy Beaumont played some fine shots as she collected 32 off 29 deliveries with the help of six boundaries to give England the early momentum.

"Think we started off really well, Amy (Jones -- 11 off 13) and Tammy (Beaumont) showed good intent. At the start it looked easy to score," said Nat-Sciver.

She added that there was a bit of struggle with the Sri Lankan spinners in the middle overs, but once that was sorted, things changed.

"There was a bit of inconsistency with the spinners. For me, batting through that allowed others to come in and play in different ways. Felt like I couldn't accelerate properly until the end when it (ball) came on more (on to the bat).

"Picking length is important, recognising what your strengths are. Not letting spinners settle, using lap sweeps, it's good to have that in your armoury," she added.

On Sophie Ecclestone, who returned excellent figures of 4/17 in 10 overs, Sciver-Brunt said, "She's brilliant. To be able to hand her the ball and bowl 10 straight through, not go for many and pick up four wickets. It's pretty special. She's grown in the last few months as well, we challenged her to do more." Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said though her team's bowling was good all through, the side gave away far too many runs at the fag end.

"We bowled really good, but the last three overs we struggled and they scored 30-40 runs. The other thing is we dropped one catch, Nat Sciver, and catches win matches." "We improved a bit (after the India game) but we need to execute again in our next game. We changed the batting order today as well. The next game is important and we have to talk about things in the meeting room." PTI AM AM AH AH