England women claim T20 double

England women beat Denstone College 1st XI boys and Staffordshire Under-17 boys in Twenty20 warm-up fixtures on Saturday (June 12).

Played at Denstone College, the England side prepared nicely for their upcoming series with New Zealand by claiming two comfortable victories.

Sarah Taylor and Charlotte Edwards put on an opening stand of 107 in the first match against Denstone College, with Edwards hitting four boundaries in her 35 off 41 balls before she was caught by Beech off the bowling of Chance. Claire Taylor then joined her namesake and continued England's solid performance with the bat in a partnership of 50 off 32 balls.

Top scorer Sarah Taylor was eventually run out by Kapil, after compiling 92 off 63 balls, including 14 boundaries and a six.

Claire Taylor also looked in good form, hitting four fours in her 25-ball 32 not out.

England finished their 20 overs on an impressive 189-2.

Nicky Shaw (2-19) and Laura Marsh (2-20) then shone with the ball for England as Denstone could only muster 173, leaving the bowling side victorious by 16 runs.

England's second win, this time against Staffordshire Under-17s, came by 14 runs with the bowlers having a smaller target to defend on this occasion.

Edwards (21) and Claire Taylor (20) got the visitors off to a solid start before Lydia Greenway top-scored with a run-a-ball 45.

Jenny Gunn, enjoying her first experience of captaining the England side after recently being awarded the vice-captaincy role, added a useful 24 off 18, including two boundaries and a six.

Wickets fell late on, in the pursuit of quick runs, as England finished on 131.

Anya Shrubsole was the leading wicket-taker for England in the reply, taking 3-30.

Staffordshire never quite managed to get to grips with their run-chase and finished up on 117-8.

After the match, Gunn commented on his first taste of England captaincy: "It was good to bat first and get rid of some of the nerves - the girls helped me out in the field, it was a good team performance. The standard is higher playing boys teams - they hit the ball further and harder, you have to be quicker in the field and bowl the right areas otherwise you get hit, but we've proven we can do it today. I'm now looking forward to facing the Kiwis."

England women will play the first match of their NatWest Series against New Zealand women at the Ford County Ground, Chelmsford on June 29.