England, Australia clinch semi-final spot

England Women made it two wins from two at the Women's World T20 and qualified for the semi-finals with a stroll of a victory over India. A target of 117 was not even close to troubling England as they won by nine wickets with 17 balls to spare.

The opening pair, captain Charlotte Edwards and Laura Marsh, put on 78 at over a run-a-ball to eat into the target before Marsh was stumped. Sarah Taylor arrived at the crease and struck four boundaries in 25 from 18 balls - she and Edwards, who reached fifty in 49 balls, saw England home untroubled.

Their sublime run in T20s has stemmed from the best bowling and fielding unit in the women's game. Katherine Brunt conceded just 16 from her four overs and spinners Marsh and Holly Colvin took three wickets between them; Marsh removing Poonam Raut who made 51 and shared India's only partnership of note - 75 in 13 overs with Mithali Raj.

"We batted really well on a great pitch and Laura and I were really pleased to make a positive start to the chase," England captain Edwards said. "The wicket was great today; the ground staff did a good job to get us on after the rain this morning."

Jess Cameron starred with the bat in Australia's 25-run win against Pakistan that saw them through to the semi-finals in a rain-affected match match in Galle. Cameron scored a quick 42 off 28 balls that featured two sixes and shared a 67-run stand with Lisa Sthalekar after Australia opted to bat. The partnership came off 45 balls and helped Australia post 146.

The openers - Alyssa Healy (36) and Meg Lanning (16) - set the foundation for Cameron's assault with a half-century stand. But for a little while - after left-arm spinner Sadia Yousuf removed the openers in three balls - Australia appeared to have lost the momentum. However, Cameron and Sthalekar took just an over to regroup before launching an attack. Yousuf's next over, the 12th, was taken for 15 runs, as 59 runs were scored between overs 10 and 15. Both batsmen were out by the 17th over, but had by then taken Australia to a strong position.

Pakistan's hopes of putting up a fight were dealt a blow in the first over when captain Sana Mir was caught behind off Ellyse Perry. The other opener, Qanita Jalil, struck two boundaries but was out to Julie Hunter in the third over. Perry added another wicket - of Nahida Khan - in the seventh over of the innings to push Pakistan into deeper trouble. However, rains came soon after and no further play was possible with Pakistan stuck on 38 for 3 off nine overs which was 25 behind the D/L par score.

Australia captain Jodie Fields said: "Even though we started out a little slower than we probably wanted, it was great to see a player, like Jess Cameron, come in and play their natural game. We wanted to win the toss and bat today so that was always in the plan, it was good to get a few of our middle order batters through as well."