HAMILTON, New Zealand — Australia underscored their
status as the team to beat in the Women's World Cup when a
Rachael Haynes century set up a 12-run win over defending champions England in Hamilton on
Saturday.
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South Africa also made a winning start to the tournament
with a comfortable 32-run victory over
Bangladesh in Dunedin.
Haynes and Meg Lanning put on 196 for the second wicket as
Australia reached an imposing 310 for three off their 50 overs.
Nat Sciver, with an unbeaten 109 from only 85 deliveries,
kept England in with a chance but a target of 36 off the final three overs
proved too much.
Haynes said it was difficult to score early in the innings
and she was not expecting Australia to reach 300.
"Initially we were thinking 260-270 might be OK, but
once we got going we thought let's just try and go as big as we can and to get
over than 300 mark was quite important," she said.
England captain Heather Knight took positives from the
narrow loss, seeing it as a step up from the recent Ashes series.
"For us as a batting unit that's a real confidence
booster," she said.
"It's not the end of the world. We lost the first game
of the 2017 World Cup."
Knight won the toss and elected to bowl, removing Alyssa
Healy in the ninth over to have
Australia one for 35 when Haynes and Lanning
came together.
Haynes was the last wicket to fall with her 130 coming off
131 deliveries while Lanning's carefully paced innings produced 86.
After 25 overs Australia were 102 for one with the second
half of the innings producing 208 runs.
Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight put on 91 for England's
second wicket and after Knight's dismissal for 40 Nat Sciver dominated the
crease.
Australian leg-spinner Alana King, who before the game tweeted
her sadness at the death of
Shane Warne, took three wickets including Beaumont
for 74 before Jess Jonassen's miserly final overtook two wickets and ended
England's chance.
In Dunedin, South Africa had a comfortable 32-run victory
over Bangladesh guided by tight spell of seam bowling by Ayabonga Khaka, who
took four for 32.
While the margin was decisive, it was not a convincing
performance for South Africa who were all out for 207 on the penultimate
delivery.
After a solid 41 from
Laura Wolvaardt, the batting faltered
to be 119 for five when Marizanne Kapp (42) and Chloe Tryon (39) put on 71 at
better than a run-a-ball to lift the total to 190 before the last five wickets
fell for 17 runs.
Sharmin Akhter and Shamima Sultana made a solid start for
Bangladesh to reach 69 before Sultana went for 27 and Akhter, who was dropped
twice early in her innings, was removed soon after for 34.
Nigar Sultana (29) and Ritu Moni (27) put on 53 for the
seventh wicket but the required run rate continued to grow and Bangladesh were
all out for 175 in the final over.
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