Host country England has got its 2022 Commonwealth Games women’s cricket campaign off to an ideal start, defeating Sri Lanka by five wickets.

Although England lost more wickets than a team of their quality should have chasing such a low score of 106, but the fact that the English kept the Sri Lankans to such a low score in the first place is a positive sign.

Sri Lanka chose to bat first, but things could not have gone much worse when they lost their first wicket off the very first ball of their innings. It was a sign of things to come as they kept losing wickets at pretty regular intervals. They were in fact almost all bowled out, but managed to survive the whole innings, finishing on 9/106.

Although plenty of the Sri Lankan batters made a double figure score, no one went on to make a decent score. Nilakshika Silva top scored with 25. On the flipside, Sophie Ecclestone was the chief destroyer with the ball for the English, taking 3/25 off her four overs. Freya Kemp and Issy Wong both nabbed two each.

In reply, the English lost their first wicket in only the second over, and their second in only the fourth, so their start was certainly a shaky one. Thankfully for the English, Alice Capsey was a solid backbone through much of the innings. As her teammates fell around her, her 44 ensured the scoreboard kept ticking over and that by the time she was dismissed with three overs to go, the job was just about done. Maia Boucher’s last cameo of 21 helped ensure the English got the win the very next ball after Capsey was dismissed.

Meanwhile for the Sri Lankans, Inoka Ranaweera and Oshadhi Ranasinghe were the two wickets takers, taking three and two respectively.