England v Sri Lanka: Women’s Cricket World Cup - live

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15th over: England 72-2 (Knight 23, Sciver-Brunt 5) Knight lofts Athapaththu over midwicket for four, not a perfect shot but has the desired result.

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14th over: England 67-2 (Knight 18, Sciver-Brunt 5) A chance mislaid for Sri Lanka as NSB (3) is dropped at midwicket by Udeshika Prabondai, who gets two rigid hands to the ball and parries it to the ground Four from the disappointed Ranaweera’s over.

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13th over: England 63-2 (Knight 16, Sciver-Brunt 3) Athapathtu again, red hankerchief hanging out of her back pocket. NSB is watchful, Knight too until Athapathtu releases a fat full toss which she slams to the rope. Athapathtu rubs her hand on said hanky in frustration, perhaps it slipped out of the hand.

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12th over: England 57-2 (Knight 11, Sciver-Brunt 2 ) Ranaweera gets her first over, a slip lurking. An excellent bit of fielding by the sweeper denies Knight a boundary.

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11th over: England 52-2 (Knight 6, Sciver-Brunt 2 ) The brains trust are now out in the middle for England. Another cheap over pases for Athapathtu.

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10th over: England 50-2 (Knight 5, Sciver-Brunt 1 ) Step, step, ping: Beaumont lofts Dasanayak straight for four, but perishes two balls later, leaving Sri Lanka pretty happy at the end of the power play.

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WICKET! Beaumont c Harshitha b Dasanayaka 32 (England 49-2)

Beaumont sashays down the pitch for the second time in the over but skews off the outside edge and is caught at cover.

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Updated at 06.35 EDT

9th over: England 45-1 (Beaumont 28, Knight 5 ) Athapathtu brings herself on, hitches up her short sleeves and directs the field in her sunglasses. She’s fabulously charismatic. Knight hits the ball back at her and she throws the ball back at the stumps in great excitement but only succeeds in hitting Knight on the leg – she runs down the pitch to apologise.

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Updated at 06.26 EDT

8th over: England 44-1 (Beaumont 27, Knight 5 ) A gorgeous clonking sound off the bat as Knight drives Dasanayaka for two. This is Sri Lanka’s first game for 11 days which, if you’re being generous, might explain some of the rustiness in the field.

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7th over: England 40-1 (Beaumont 26, Knight 2) Prabodani whistles through her fourth over, just a couple of runs from it.

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6th over: England 38-1 (Beaumont 25, Knight 1) Beaumont drills Dasanayaka for four from her first ball, but is hit low on pads, and deep in her crease, by an arm ball from the penultimate ball of the over. Sri Lanka decide to review, despite the ball looking as if it is going to drift past leg stump – and they duly lose one of their two reviews.

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5th over: England 33-1 (Beaumont 20, Knight 1) Beaumont rebuilds with a boundary down to fine leg.

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4th over: England 25-1 (Beaumont 13, Knight 0) A round of applause from NSB as Beaumont paddle sweeps for four, the dust exploding from her moving boots. Then an authoritative cut for four more. Then the miscalculated run, perhaps borne of sudden confidence.

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Updated at 06.07 EDT

WICKET! Jones run out (Kaveesha) 11 (England 24-1)

Oh dear. Beaumont calls for a run to cover that always looked unlikely. Jones hesitated, and that split second’s thought was her downfall, a good enough throw to Sanjeewani does the job.

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Updated at 06.14 EDT

3rd over: England 16-0 (Jones 11, Beaumont 5) A miserly over from Pradodani, neat and tidy medium pace.

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2nd over: England 14-0 (Jones 9, Beaumont 5) Spin at the other end from Dasanayaka, and ooof, Beaumont is hit on the front pad. She’s stretched her leg hugely, pretty far forward, but it looks out and umpire raises her finger. She reviews, correctly as it turns out as the ball is missing leg, and she then clops the next ball serenely through the covers for four.

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1st over: England 9-0 (Jones 8, Beaumont 1) A half-hearted dive from Vihanga, like a sleepy stretch from a deck-chair to catch some wayward suncream, lets Jones pick four from and edge to Prabodani’s first ball. Another bit of careless fielding brings a single, not the on point start Sri Lanka would have wanted.

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Sri Lanka sprint onto the field led by Athapaththu; Beaumont and Jones stride behind. The ground does not look hugely full to be honest, but I know in India more spectators have come in for the second innings.

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Updated at 05.53 EDT

Here come the teams, hand in hand with their mascots. Sri Lanka’s anthem first, a long, lyrical number, before an upbeat verse of God Save the King, with a handful of the English women struggling to contain a fit of giggles.

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Sky show a really lovely little interview with Heather Knight and some of her teammates about how she feels she can connect with her teammates in a different way now she no longer has the pressures of captaincy.

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One change for Sri Lanka:

Allrounder Dewmi Vihanga replaces Achini Kulasuriya.

Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Sugandika Dasanayaka, Dewmi Vihanga, Inoka Ranaweera, Udeshika Prabodhani

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England XI are unchanged

England: Tammy Beamont, Amy Jones (wk), Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.

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Sri Lanka win the toss and will bowl

… “Because I’m very confident with my bowling unit.” NSB looks happy, says she would have batted, that the surface looks pretty good.

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Updated at 05.49 EDT

Arnold says he would bowl first, on what looks like a dry pitch. NSB and Athapaththu are walking to the middle with what looks very much like team sheets, so the toss must be imminent.

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Updated at 05.12 EDT

A 15 minute delay due to rain

Though it all seeems gorgeously sunny now in Colombo. Russel Arnold is looking dapper in regulation CWC maroon trousers and very open necked shirt and is joined by Tash Farrant, who says she was asked by Charlotte Edwards to go into the nets as a left-hander, like Chamari Athapaththu.

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Sri Lanka have won only once in an ODI against England, but they do have trump cards. Chamari Athapaththu is a veteran of franchise cricket and a real threat, while left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera had India worried with three wickets in an over in the opening game.

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Preamble

Good morning! Today, we are in Colombo, where England start their two match adventure in Sri Lanka by playing the joint hosts.

It’s been a pretty shiny start for England. Two wins from two games left them top of the table after the first couple of rounds – even if the victory against Bangladesh wasn’t the most convincing performance – dragged over the line by Heather Knight and some catches that might have been.

Sri Lanka are yet to get going, losing to India in the opening game of the tournament while their game against Australia was washed out. But the ball spins a lot at Colombo, and England can come unstuck.

Play is due to start at 10.30am BST, though the grungy skies may push things back. Do join us.

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