Women's WT20: England cruise past NZ to final

England stormed into the final of the ICC Women's World Twenty20 after an all-round effort gave them a convincing seven-wicket win over New Zealand in the first semi-final in Colombo, on Thursday.

Skipper Charlotte Edwards led the chase with a knock of 33 after the English bowlers restricted the Kiwis to a mere 93 for 8 in 20 overs, at the R Premadasa stadium.

Edwards was named player of the match for her batting and astute captaincy.

England will meet the winners of Friday's second semi-final between Australia and the West Indies.

Chasing a not-so-challenging total, Edwards started in earnest, scoring her runs off 37 balls. The knock was studded with five fours.

After the skipper's dismissal, wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor (22 off 32 balls) and Lydia Greenway's brisk 19-ball 22 completed the task with as many as 16 balls to spare.

New Zealand's left-arm medium-pacer Sian Ruck returned figures of two for 22 from her four overs.

Sent in to bat, the Kiwis could never really challenge their English counterparts from the moment the Greenway-Taylor combo ran out skipper Suzie Bates in the first over of the match.

The Kiwis failed to recover from Bates's early dismissal, and lost wickets at regular intervals against some disciplined bowling.

For England, Danielle Wyatt and Holly Colvin finished with two wickets apiece, while there was one each for Anya Shrubsole and Laura Marsh.

"It's our best performance with the ball so far. It turned a lot more here. It was tough, but I'm really pleased we got over the line. Lydia sets the standard for us in the field and it was a good all-round effort," Edwards said.

Bates said: "We knew we'd come up a few short but I'm proud of the way we tried to defend it. When the pitch was slower we didn't adjust. England are the No. 1 side and we knew we'd have to play well."

Brief scores:

New Zealand: 93 for eight in 20 overs (Amy Satterthwaite 30; Danielle Wyatt 2/15, Holly Colvin 2/15).

England: 94 for three in 17.2 overs (Charlotte Edwards 33, Lydia Greenway 22; Sian Ruck 2/22).