The much-awaited 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup finally kicked off yesterday on the 12th of June. Birmingham was more than ready to host this exciting tournament.
The first match was held between hosts, England and Sri Lanka. The match was held at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Sri Lanka won the toss electing to field. With the hosts, England set to bat it seemed like they didn’t put a foot wrong. Openers, Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt-Hodge set the tone for the tournament. Amy Jones (53) and Danni Wyatt-Hodge with a fabulous century (105*) put on a spectacular show.
England lost only 1 wicket, when Nat Sciver-Brunt came in to bat she had an agenda of her own. Coming off the back of an injury, she didn’t disappoint, scoring (46*) at a strike rate of 209.09. They went on to post 219/1. A mammoth of a total to start their campaign and the tournament.
Sri Lanka couldn’t manage to contain the side, with misfields and the inability to extract wickets. Malki Madara was the only one to get a wicket, which was also her first T20 World Cup wicket. Behind her, Nilakshika Silva had the best figures conceding 16 runs in 2 overs at an economy rate of 8.00.
Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones put up a partnership of 135 runs in 85 balls. Further, Wyatt-Hodge and Sciver-Brunt piled up another partnership of 84 runs.
Sri Lanka looked nowhere near as settled as England. They lost 3 wickets in the powerplay with the run rate never catching up with the required rate.
The highest scorers for Sri Lanka were Harshita Samarawickrama (29) and Nilakshika Silva (39). None of the top-order batters was able to form partnerships, which hurt the chase severely.
Freya Kemp, the left-arm allrounder didn’t help their case. She claimed 4 wickets for 22 runs at an economy rate of 5.50.
Charlie Dean had second-best figures with 2 wickets for 18 runs, and an economy of 6.00.
Compared to the hosts, Sri Lanka managed to score only 48 runs through boundaries, with 2 sixes and 9 fours. Their chase started with a run rate of 6.1, and they weren’t able to recover it in the middle overs.
There were no substantial partnerships between their batters to help the chase. The only two partnerships they had were between Nilakshika Silva and Malki Madara (39), and Nilakshika Silva and Kavisha Dilhari (25). Sri Lanka also had a dot ball percentage of 46.
This match had the highest aggregate (351) involving England Women and Sri Lanka Women in T20Is. Other than that, Nilakshika Silva and Malki Madara’s 39-run partnership is the highest for the 9th wicket in T20Is. It broke the record of 27 between Shashikala Siriwardene and Prabodhani.
England eventually won the match by 87 runs, giving their campaign a perfect start. Though the match was a very one-sided affair, Sri Lanka still has other matches to improve their performance.
