Colvin stars in comfortably victory

England Women 86 for 2 (Edwards 40*) beat New Zealand 83 (Colvin 3-17) by eight wickets
Scorecard

England Women made it two one-sided matches on the opening day of the quadrangular series with a comfortable eight-wicket victory over New Zealand Women at Chelmsford.

England's spinners proved a key weapon, as Holly Colvin and Laura Marsh shared five wickets, while Aaron Brindle marked her return to international cricket with 3 for 11. Needing barely four-an-over for victory England had few problems during their chase as captain Charlotte Edwards led the way with an unbeaten 40.

The tone for the match was set in the first over when Katherine Brunt removed Aimee Watkins with a wonderful leg-cutter. Although a second-wicket stand of 34 steadied New Zealand there was never any momentum behind the innings and when Colvin struck three times the slide was on.

England's fielding was also sharp, although Sarah Taylor needed some luck to gain a stumping off her pads to give Brindle her first wicket who also ended the innings with three balls unused.

Edwards and Marsh then gave the run chase a rapid start as they added 42 inside the Powerplay. Marsh hit four fours in her 24 - New Zealand only hit four in their whole innings - before falling to Sian Ruck, but nothing was going to stop England.

"Katherine Brunt bowled brilliantly today and the spinners chipped away and bowled fantastically and were backed up well by the fielders," Edwards said after the game. "We've worked hard on our fielding recently and it has been something we have always prided ourselves on, so I'm really pleased with the performance today. It's great the way we went out there and knocked off the runs, we were aggressive from the start and Laura Marsh played fantastically well.

"I'm really looking forward to playing Australia on Saturday, they won today too so it should be an exciting game in Bristol."