Greenway Leads England To Four-Wicket Win

Greenway Leads England To Four-Wicket Win

Lydia Greenway guided England to victory with an unbeaten 39

©Action Images / Andrew Couldridge

England Women 144-6 (Greenway 39no) beat
Austraila Women 140-5 (Colvin 2-21) by 4 wickets
First Twenty20 International, Adelaide

England Women struck first in their five-match Twenty20 International series by beating Australia Women by four wickets in the opening game in Adelaide.

Australia reached 140 for five in their 20 overs before England got to their target with ten balls to spare and go 1-0 up in the series.

Lisa Sthalekar (38 in 29 balls) and Alex Blackwell (35 in 34) put on 68 for the fourth wicket after Australia had slumped to 63 for three after the early dismissals of Shelley Nitschke (17), Meg Lanning (10) and Leah Poulton (26).

Left-arm spinner Holly Colvin returned two for 21 by dismissing Nitschke and Poulton while there was a wicket apiece for Laura Marsh, who bowled Lanning, and Danielle Wyatt, who had Sthalekar caught by Colvin.

England also lost early wickets when captain Charlotte Edwards was caught by Lanning off Nitschke for 16, Marsh went for 23 and Wyatt also fell for 16.

However, England were scoring at a good rate and after those three dismissals, Lydia Greenway held the innings together with a composed unbeaten 39 in 27 balls as she guided her side safely over the line.

Australia didn't make things easy, however, as Ellyse Perry had Susie Rowe trapped in front for 20 and Sarah Coyte grabbed the wickets of both Heather Knight (10) and Fran Wilson (0) but England had enough in hand to get home despite Coyte's impressive figures of three for 18.

"Charlotte (Edwards) and Laura (Marsh) got us off to a great start getting ahead of the run rate and all the girls that came in knew what they had to do," Greenway said after the match.

"We kept our cool and when the run rate went up and it paid off.

"I’m really happy with my performance and to start the series with a win. We’ll be looking to take this momentum with us to the MCG on Friday.”

The second game in the series is at Melbourne on 14th January.

© Cricket World 2011