Danni Wyatt-Hodge led a command performance with the bat, and in the field, as England defied the gravity of their home World Cup opening match, to produce a thrilling statement victory over Sri Lanka, in front of a 14,865 crowd at Edgbaston.

Aided and abetted by Amy Jones and Nat Sciver Brunt,  Wyatt-Hodge dominated a toiling Sri Lanka attack with a superb unbeaten 105 from 62 balls – her third in the T20I format and her first since returning from maternity leave only a handful of weeks ago.

In her eighth T20 World Cup, and at the age of 35, this was a performance to banish any doubts about England’s readiness to seize their opportunities in the coming weeks. She followed it up with a stunning running catch to ignite England’s fielding display, which was in turn seized by the left-arm seam of Freya Kemp,  whose innings-breaking haul of 4 for 21 allowed her side to cruise to an untroubled 87-run win.

England’s openers make statement start

Sri Lanka chose to bowl first after winning the toss, though without much cause. “We don’t know these conditions and yesterday it rained,” Chamari Athapaththu said at the toss. Well, today it poured, with runs, as Wyatt-Hodge and her new-old opening partner, Jones, climbed onto the offensive with an uncompromising stand of 135 from 82 balls.

The pair hadn’t opened together in a full international since their unremarkable alliance at this same tournament in Australia in 2020, when the pair’s performances had included a brace of ducks against Thailand. But, with Sciver-Brunt restored to the XI after her calf injury, and Sophia Dunkley paying the price for a fallow run of form, the timing was right for a reunion, and the conditions could hardly have proved more conducive.

Sri Lanka’s nerves weren’t helped by a lengthy delay before the first ball – with something glinting behind the bowler’s arm, perhaps a left-over from the Wicked set that had served as the tournament’s opening ceremony – and Athapaththu duly rang the changes in the powerplay, with four different bowlers used in consecutive overs.

England didn’t come springing out of the traps, but nor did they need to, with the absence of a conventional midwicket kickstarting a diet of regular leg-side runs. But, after Jones had been dropped at backward square off Athapaththu – a one-handed attempt from Kavisha Dilhari, who perhaps had more time than she thought – the guard-rails came off, with Wyatt-Hodge battering three off-side fours off Malki Madara, to carry England to 51 for 0 after six.

Wyatt-Hodge takes command

With her new baby Daisy at the forefront of her thoughts, Wyatt-Hodge exuded experience and contentment in a showstopping performance. She had arguably been a touch short of runs since her return, though her domestic performances for Surrey – two centuries and a 96 in four innings – had left little doubt about her enduring class. There was never any doubt about her place at the top of England’s pecking order, and now we know why.

With Jones ticking over alongside her, Wyatt-Hodge took command of England’s tempo. She cracked eight fours in her 33-ball fifty, the last of which – up and over extra cover – brought out the first sighting of her Bebeto-style rock-a-baby celebration. She followed that up with the first six of the tournament, a muscular slap over long-on off Athapaththu, as England kept pounding along at a ten-an-over tempo that offered Sri Lanka no chance to collect their thoughts.

The only real jeopardy in her chanceless innings was the prospect of landing her third T20I century. She was on 96 as Madara began the final over, but immediately lost the strike to a miscued swipe across a slower ball. It could have been costly with Sciver-Brunt oozing familiar class in her unbeaten 46 from 22 balls, and proving merciless in her own boundary-hunting.

But a sharp piece of fielding on the bounce at backward square denied Sciver-Brunt a third boundary in a row, and Wyatt-Hodge was left with two balls to seal the deal. She needed just one – a pre-meditated shuffle to the off-side, and a firmly placed sweep through backward square. Edgbaston roared, as the Bebeto came out again, and one final launch up and over long-off completed an exceptional evening out for England’s longest-serving campaigner.

England’s support act show their class

Jones is an enthusiastic England opener, having thrived in the ODI role of late, including with back-to-back centuries against West Indies last summer. And though she was outshone by her partner in the final analysis, her return to the top was ample justification for England’s rejig. With a fifty from 34 balls, she scarcely paled in terms of tempo, even if she had a touch more fortune along the way, including a bad drop on 48, as Sugandika Kumari fumbled a return chance at the third attempt. It was left to the skipper to show how it should be done, with a comfortable low take at cover to give Madara her first World Cup wicket.

If that felt like respite for Sri Lanka, it was nothing of the sort. Sciver-Brunt’s calf tear has been a lurking concern for England all summer long, and the fact that she is playing solely as a batter is proof that she’s not entirely out of the woods. And yet this was a return to allay any immediate fears.

Notwithstanding a tough chance in the deep on 14, Sciver-Brunt’s timing was exquisite from the outset, and her range of shots remains a cut above. Her six fours included a dinky ramp over the keeper off Mithali Ayodhya, whom she immediately drilled down the ground one ball later, as well as arguably the shot of the night in the final over – a contemptuously powerful drive through the covers to bring up England’s 200. Barring an untimely ‘pop’ of that pesky calf, England’s skipper is in the form, and the mood, to make hay at this tournament.

England close it out with attitude

Even allowing for an Athapaththu masterpiece, a target of 220 was never realistic for Sri Lanka. The main contest in the second half was England against themselves – and they won hands-down with a hugely encouraging display of confidence and skill. All six of England’s bowlers were given a sighter inside the first nine overs, just to get them involved in the World Cup vibe, and by the time the last of those, Kemp, had ripped through the lower order, including taking three in four balls, they had utterly nailed their brief.

The honour of England’s first wicket of the World Cup went to Lauren Bell, with a pinpoint lbw that Vishmi Gunaratne reviewed to no avail whatsoever. But the moment of ignition went to the player of the moment, Wyatt-Hodge, with a sprinting, swirling, sprawling catch at deep square leg to prise out Sri Lanka’s queen-pin, Athapaththu. It was a catch she had no right to take, but she styled it out all the same, not unlike Ben Stokes’ epic at The Oval in the men’s opening match of the 2019 World Cup.

Wyatt-Hodge did take the gloss off her own display with two subsequent drops, though neither was anything close to a sitter, but her standards were upheld by the rest of England’s fielders. Kemp clung onto a sharp take at short backward square to see off Imesha Dulani and give Linsey Smith her first wicket; Smith then returned the favour at deep square leg, to ignite Kemp’s remarkable late surge.

After a history of back stress-fractures, Kemp’s return to bowling has been gradual and micro-managed, with this tournament the absolute end-game. Her first ball of the evening was inauspicious, but ultimately misleading, as Harshitha Samarawickrama cuffed her dismissively over deep midwicket for six. Before the over was done, she’d got her vengeance with an offcutter – the first of six chances in the space of ten balls.

It was left to England’s other old stager, Sophie Ecclestone, to mop up the resistance with two wickets in the match’s final over, to put the seal on the most morale-boosting night out imaginable for the tournament hosts.

SCORES:
England 219 for 1 in 20 overs (Amy Jones 53, Danni Wyatt-Hodge 105*,  Nat Sciver-Brunt 46*; Malki Madara 1-51) beat Sri Lanka 132 in 20 overs  (Harshitha Samarawickrama 29, Hansima Karunarathne 11, Kavisha Dilhari 19, Nilakshi Silva 39; Lauren Bell 1-15, Linsey Smith 1-24, Charlie Dean 2-18, Sophie Ecclestone 2-27, Freya Kemp 4-21)by 87 runs

[Cricinfo]