England’s queens of spin enjoy view from the top

And not just any old spin queens. Sophie Ecclestone, England’s talisman, is the ICC’s leading women’s ODI bowler. Off-spinning Charlie Dean, the new vice-captain, sits at No10 on the same list. Linsey Smith has been taking wickets for fun since returning to the side with her drift and swing, while allrounder Alice Capsey has a fine line in handy off-breaks. Leg-spinner Sarah Glenn waits in her fluorescent tabard, faithfully warming the bench for the first three games.

And so far, so good. While Heather Knight, fortuitously, against Bangladesh, and Nat Sciver-Brunt, magnificently, with her 117 against Sri Lanka yesterday, have done the business with the bat, the spinners weave their web. In England’s first three matches at this World Cup, the thrashings of South Africa and Sri Lanka and the narrower victory over Bangladesh, the spinners took 24 of the 30 wickets, England’s 57 varieties offering something for captain Sciver-Brunt at almost every occasion – whether in the power play or later on.

Smith ran through South Africa’s top order, Ecclestone led the way with four wickets against Bangladesh and, facing Sri Lanka yesterday, Dean took a wicket with her first ball in Colombo with a beauty that dipped and ripped.

“I think our spinners are right up there,” said Tammy Beaumont after England landed in Colombo ahead of yesterday’s game. “The variety of our attack is really important and the fact someone like Sarah Glenn is not currently in our XI and yet she’s one of the most wicket-taking leg-spinners in the world is a sign of the depth that we’ve got and the way they really complement each other and work together.

“Linsey and Sophie are really different left-arm spinners and Charlie Dean is just getting better and better with more responsibility. I can tell you that facing them in the nets is not too fun but a great challenge and gets you prepped for any spinner you are going to face in this World Cup.”

India’s surprise loss to an inspired South Africa, and the earlier rained-off no-result between Australia and Sri Lanka, leaves England top of the table after their 89-win run over Sri Lanka, with each side having played three of their seven round-robin games. But there are bigger challenges ahead. After Pakistan in Colombo next Wednesday, they fly to Indore to face India and Australia.

That India defeat by South Africa aside, Beaumont said the biggest surprise so far has been the pitches. “I thought they might be a bit more high scoring and might not offer so much to the bowlers but you’ve just got to adapt.

“You might have to grit it out a bit, and someone has got to earn the right to go big but that is part of the challenge of tournament cricket.”

Beaumont might have manifested Sciver-Brunt’s hundred, an innings expertly constructed and brilliantly paced among the debris of a mid-innings wobble and a change in conditions, to conclude with three successive fours in the final over.

It was her fifth ODI World Cup century – the most by any woman in the history of the tournament – and one enjoyed by her slightly baffled-looking baby being bounced on various knees in the crowd. If Sri Lanka dropped her on three, then, as with Knight against Bangladesh, she made the most of her luck.

Photograph by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images