DAY THREE of the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup saw a pair of tournament heavyweights in Australia and England pick up some first up wins.

Australia cruises to first up win

Defending champions Australia cruised to a first up win, defeating Sri Lanka by six wickets.

After restricting Sri Lanka to 7/93, Australia reached that target with almost five and a half overs to spare.

Megan Schutt was the main destroyer with the ball in hand for Australia, taking three wickets, while in her return to tournament cricket Sophie Molineux picked up two wickets and Ash Gardner and Georgia Wareham took one each. In the chase Beth Mooney battled the heat to finish top scorer with 43 not out.

Meanwhile for Sri Lanka not too many batters were able to get much of a start, with only three batters making a double figure score. Of those, Nilakshika Silva’s 29 was the best of the bunch. What makes that scorecard even more embarrassing for Sri Lanka was that those three were also the only ones to outscore the extras tally, which was a pretty high 13.

Meanwhile Udeshika Prabodani, Inoka Ranaweera and Sugandika Kumari all picked up one wicket each.

Tight bowling hands England first up win

England also picked up a first up win, beating Bangladesh by 21 runs.

England made 7/118 from its 20 overs before restricting their opponents to just 7/97 from theirs.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge top scored for England with 41, while Linsey Smith and Charlie Dean took a pair of wickets each.

Meanwhile for Bangladesh Nahida Akter, Fahima Khatun and Ritu Moni took two wickets each, while Sobhana Mostary made 44 with bat in hand.

Day 4 Action

India vs Pakistan – 3pm local time (9pm tonight AEST)

West Indies vs Scotland – 7pm local time (1am Monday AEST)