India crushed by England in Women's World Cup

The batters let India down as a dominant England steamrolled Jhulan Goswami's team by nine wickets in the ICC Women's World Cup cricket tournament at the North Sydney Oval here on Tuesday.

Put into bat, India folded in 48.4 overs managing just 169, a score they largely owe to Mithali Raj (59), Amita Sharma (33) and Anagha Deshpande (32).

England subsequently rode an unbroken 125-run second-wicket stand between opener Caroline Atkins (69) and Claire Taylor (69) to cruise to a facile nine-wicket victory with 11.3 overs to spare.

England's second successive victory puts them on top of Group B, assuring them a place in the Super Six, while India is second with one win and one defeat.

India will go head-to-head with bottom-placed Sri Lanka at Bankstown on Thursday, while England meet third-placed Pakistan at the North Sydney Oval.

Earlier, India slipped from 92 for three to 126 for nine in just 14 overs before a late onslaught by Amita Sharma lifted them to 169 all out in 48.4 overs. Amita hit five fours and a six in a 24-ball 33 before being the last batter out.

While wickets fell like nine-pins from one end, former captain Mithali Raj stood tall before becoming the eighth batter to depart at the score of 123. Raj scored a fine 59 off 90 balls and included nine fours. 

Left-arm spinner Holly Colvin was the star of England's bowling attack, picking up three for 22. Fast bowler Jenny Gunn also bagged three while new-ball bowler Isa Guha finished with 2-16 after claiming the wickets of both the openers.

England had a largely unperturbed chase despite losing Sarah Taylor (27) as Atkins and Claire Taylor put India's bowling to the sword with some sizzling drives and sweeps.

Atkins' knock, which fetched her the player-of-the-match award, came off 124 balls and included nine fours while Taylor belted nine fours and a six in a rapid 69 not out off 65 balls.

In Group A, defending champion Australia got its campaign back on track after a surprise defeat to New Zealand on Sunday with a comfortable 61-run victory over South Africa while New Zealand put in another tidy bowling performance to defeat the West Indies by 56 runs to join England in the Super Six.

South Africa will now have to beat 2000 winner New Zealand to keep its hope of reaching the Super Six alive while the West Indies can go through to that stage irrespective of the outcome of its match against Australia if New Zealand wins at Bowral.

In the Super Six stage, the top three sides in each group will play the teams which have qualified from the other group. The top two sides from the Super Six will go forward to the 22 March final.