Sciver-Brunt: Ecclestone a special bowler who is making her mark on World Cup
Media release
England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt hailed Sophie Ecclestone after the spinner’s superb bowling performance helped England maintain their 100% record at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
The 26-year-old dismantled Sri Lanka’s top and middle order with an excellent display of how to utilise a spinning pitch, finishing with figures of four for 17 that saw the opposition fall from 95 for one to 116 for five.
Hasini Perera was the first of Ecclestone’s scalps as, when on 35, she tried to slog the No. 1-ranked ODI bowler but only succeeded in finding Alice Capsey at mid-on.
Harshitha Samarawickrama was then sent back to the pavilion for 33 when she top-edged to Lauren Bell at short fine and Kavisha Dilhari was also given her cue to leave when Ecclestone knocked back her off-stump attempting a big sweep.
The returning captain Chamari Athapaththu, who had earlier retired hurt, could only add a further eight runs to her score before Ecclestone bowled her with a ball that beat both bat and pad to clatter the stumps.
Ecclestone’s exploits in England’s 89-run win in Colombo means she now tops the leading wicket taker standings with nine scalps and Sciver-Brunt, who had earlier hit a superb run-a-ball 117 to propel her side to 253 for nine, was delighted at the mature performance from the slow left armer.
“She's brilliant, isn't she?” she said. “To be able to hand the ball to her and bowl 10 straight through today, not going for many runs and picking up four wickets, it's pretty special.
“From the time she was 16 and came into the team, I think we knew we had something special on our hands. I think she's probably really grown in the last couple of months.
“We challenged her a little bit to improve herself and to really make a mark on this team, and for herself as well. I'm really pleased for her.”
Sciver-Brunt’s record-breaking fifth ICC Women’s World Cup hundred was crucial to England’s imposing total on a pitch offering a lot to both sets of spinners.
The 33-year-old was handed a life on three but looked imperious thereafter, scoring all around the ground despite wickets falling around her at regular intervals.
And she brought up her ton, which is also her 10th in ODIs, with an exquisite inside out lofted drive over extra cover for six.
Sciver-Brunt was eventually out for 117, which included nine fours and two sixes, and she was pleased to have been the mainstay of the innings once she had got herself up and running.
“[The plan was to] build a partnership with Heather,” said Sciver-Brunt, whose 60-run partnership with Knight was the biggest of the match.
“[We wanted to] make sure that we built something so that the batters coming in could really accelerate towards the end of the innings, which obviously didn't quite happen.
“But, and we talk about it all the time, having a set batter towards the end of the innings is so important, especially when the wicket probably is a little bit sloppy and a little bit inconsistent.
“[I was] really happy that I was able to do that today.”
Wins over South Africa, Bangladesh and now Sri Lanka mean England sit top of the group stage table at this year’s World Cup and leave them in a good position to make the knockout stages.
However, despite being unbeaten, Sciver-Brunt is still expecting more to come from her charges.
When asked if England had played their best cricket yet, she added: “In patches. Probably not. We probably haven't put it all together.
“We probably would have liked to have some bigger partnerships in our batting innings today to make it feel a little bit more comfortable. But in patches, we've done really well.”
Sri Lanka have now lost two of their opening three matches at the competition, but Athapaththu is confident her side are close to turning a corner with New Zealand next up.
She said: “I feel we improved a little bit, but we need to improve a lot before the next game. We stick with our plans, and we have to execute the right plan at the right time.”
ENDS