Nat Sciver says England followed the batting blueprint as they defeated Bangladesh by 109 runs in their first warm-up match for the Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.
The vice-captain was the star of the show crunching 108 from 101 balls as England set Bangladesh an imposing 311 to win at Lincoln Green.
It was a target Bangladesh never looked likely to reach particularly as Sciver took two early wickets to reduce to Bangladesh to 3-52, the Tigers eventually dismissed for 209 all out.
Sciver said: “We’ve had a few chats as a batting group and I guess that’s the blueprint we want to go with moving forward.
“The conditions were nice, the ball wasn’t really moving that much, so we took advantage of that today. I was enjoying myself really. Just sticking to my strengths and not really going too far outside of that.”
England were without World Cup stalwarts Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole who were rested while spinner Sophie Ecclestone played no part as a precaution due to a calf niggle.
Tash Farrant was forced off 2.5 overs into her opening bowling spell as she came down with illness and was sent back to the team hotel to rest, but all-rounders Sophia Dunkley and Emma Lamb stepped into fill the void with Dunkley taking 1-22.
“I’m really pleased with for Dunks actually to get a wicket as well,” she added.
“She’s been working on her bowling and she changed her run-up a little bit as well. She had a big 10 over spell yesterday in the nets, so she might be a bit sore today.”
Lamb was equally impressive with the bat coming in at number eight and making 28 off 20, it leaves a selection dilemma after normal opener Lauren Winfield-Hill finally found her form, scoring 55 of 43 balls in an 81-run opening stand with Tammy Beaumont.
The 2017 World Cup winner has not scored a half-century in ODIs since 2016 but took advantage against a Bangladesh side who will make their one-day World Cup debut.
Sciver said: “She’s quite an aggressive player anyway, naturally, so that probably suited her today, and her and Tammy got us off to a great start.
“I wouldn’t want to be a selector myself. But we’ve got one more warm-up game and I don’t know what the order will be, but we’ll see what happens.”
England will take on South Africa in their final warm-up game before the defence of their title begins against Australia on 5 March.
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