Beaumont hits fifty but England struggle to 244 against Australia

Tammy Beaumont found form with the bat but, without her half-century and a late charge by seventh-wicket pair Alice Capsey and Charlie Dean, England would be worse off than defending 244 against an Australian side who for the most part had kept a lid on their opponents in a World Cup battle for top spot.

Annabel Sutherland claimed three wickets for 60 runs in her 10 overs, including that of Beaumont for 78, but she leaked 31 runs off her last three overs in the face of a 61-run stand between Capsey and Dean, England's best partnership of the match.

Australia's spinners shared the wickets, with Ash Gardner and Sophie Molineux taking two apiece but it was the miserly Alana King, who took 1 for 20 from her 10, who was crucial in stymying England in the middle overs.

Capsey was the only member of England's struggling middle order to make a significant contribution with 38 off 32 balls and Dean provided another helpful cameo from No. 8, this time worth 26 from 27.

Kim Garth, who replaced fellow seamer Darcie Brown in the Australian side, and Megan Schutt were wayward with their lines and lengths early and the England openers capitalised.

Beaumont thrashed the second ball of the match, from Schutt, to the square leg boundary and helped herself to six and four in the space of three Garth deliveries in the next over.

Amy Jones joined in with three fours off Schutt in the fifth over and Beaumont opened the eighth with three consecutive fours off Garth. But Sutherland's introduction to the attack delivered instant rewards with a wicket maiden as she plucked out Jones, playing inside the line of a perfect ball on the top of off stump to end an opening stand of 55.

After a wise Australia review removed Heather Knight, lbw to Molineux, King backed up the excellent economy of her player-of-the-match performance against Bangladesh and was rewarded with the big wicket of Nat Sciver-Brunt, lured down the pitch and skewing the ball to Sutherland at mid-off.

King extracted prolific turn and bounce, her initial eight-over spell yielding just 13 runs and coinciding with a period between the 20th and 30th in which England added just 26 runs.

Beaumont had moved her feet well and thrown her body into her task to avoid a run-out and later chase a ramp off Sutherland which defied the bat and stand-in wicketkeeper Beth Mooney to run to the boundary, but a wonderful catch off Sutherland's next ball ended her innings.

Georgia Voll, playing her first World Cup match as a replacement for the injured Alyssa Healy, was as cool as anything when Beaumont took on Sutherland's slower ball. Voll ran backwards at long-on, took the catch then parried it back to herself as she staggered over the rope then stepped calmly back inside.

It was a back-of-the-hand slower ball from Sutherland which extended Emma Lamb's wretched tournament when she was bowled off her pads for 7, taking her aggregate to 36 from five innings.

Sophia Dunkley misread a Gardner delivery, advancing and heaving towards the leg side as the ball spun past the outside edge and Mooney whipped off the bails in plenty of time to send the batter back for 22, her highest score of the tournament.

Capsey defied her lean run at No. 7 with back-to-back fours off Sutherland taking her past her previous best at this World Cup of 20. But when she was pinned on the pad by Molineux and Dean chipped Gardner to cover two balls later, Australia wrested back control.