Danni Wyatt-Hodge ton gives England a winning start to World Cup

England opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge gave the Women's T20 World Cup 2026 a stunning start as she starred with a 62-ball 105 - just the seventh ton in Women's T20 World Cup history, to set up a massive 87-run win over Sri Lanka. Wyatt-Hodge's opening partner Amy Jones struck a 38-ball 53 while captain Nat Sciver-Brunt chipped in with a 22-ball 46 to power the tournament hosts to a mammoth 219/1 in 20 overs. The daunting total proved to be too steep for a chasing Sri Lanka, who fell well short in the end.

England hit 23 boundaries in all, with Wyatt-Hodge accounting for 13 of those. All three batters tonked a six each as the Sri Lanka bowlers endured a rough outing at Edgbaston. Fittingly on the evening, Wyatt-Hodge hit the first four of the World Cup, cutting a delivery from Mithali Ayodhya. Chamari Athapaththu nearly had Amy Jones dismissed early, but a tough chance at deep square leg was spilled. Wyatt-Hodge then got going against Malki Madara in the fifth over, hitting three fours. England got to 50 inside the Powerplay, and kept the scoring going even through the middle.

Two massive post-Powerplay overs nudged the scoring rate towards 10-an-over, and in the 10th over, Wyatt-Hodge reached her 32-ball fifty. In that same over, she also tonked the first six of the tournament. She and Amy Jones, who began to cut loose too, brought up their third century-stand for the first wicket in T20Is. Even as Malki Madara found a breakthrough in the 14th over by dismssing Jones, the pattern in the second half of the innings was largely similar. Captain Sciver-Brunt arrived swinging for the fences and connected most of what she tried. Sciver-Brunt launched into the bowlers at the death - two fours off Kavisha Dilhari, three off Ayodhya, as England inched towards the 200-run mark. Then came a 26-run final over in which Wyatt-Hodge reached her ton and England comfortably soared past 200 to score the highest team total in Women's T20 World Cup history.

Expectedly, the chase was a bridge too far for Sri Lanka. It was nearly done before it truly began as they were down to 37/3 inside the Powerplay. Top-three of Vishmi Gunaratne, Athapaththu and Imesha Dulani departed for single-digit scores. Freya Kemp then rattled the middle-over to walk off with figures of 4/22 as Sri Lanka crashed and burned through rest of the chase as well. No.7 batter Nilakshika Silva's 33-ball 39 was the best batting effort for Sri Lanka, summing up the direction they were headed in the chase. Charlotte Dean and Sophie Ecclestone picked two wickets apiece as Sri Lanka were folded for a meagre 132 on the final delivery.

England 219/1 in 20 overs [Danni Wyatt-Hodge 105* (62), Amy Jones 53 (28), Nat Sciver-Brunt 46 (22)] beat Sri Lanka 132 in 20 overs [Nilakshika Silva 39 (33); Freya Kemp 4-22, Charlotte Dean 2-18, Sophie Ecclestone 2-27] by 87 runs