Women's Twenty20 World Cup: Pakistan off to an impressive start; England post victory

Pakistan beat West Indies and England defeated Thailand in the women's Twenty20 World Cup matches played on Wednesday. Pakistan got their tournament off to an impressive start, beating the West Indies with 10 balls to spare.

Skipper Heather Knight smashed the first century of the women's Twenty20 World Cup Wednesday as England emphatically got their campaign back on track with a crushing 98-run win over minnows Thailand.

The 2009 champions had looked vulnerable as they crashed to a six-wicket defeat against South Africa in their opening Group B game on Sunday, following a shock 10-wicket hammering by Sri Lanka in their final warm-up last week.

With only the top two from each of the two five-team groups qualifying for the knockout phase, defeat in Canberra would have left their tournament in tatters. But Knight hit an unbeaten 108 in a tournament-best 169-run partnership with Natalie Sciver (not out 59) to secure the vital win. England's 176 for two was also the highest score by any team so far.

In the later match, Pakistan won their opening clash, beating 2016 champions the West Indies by eight wickets to leave Group B wide open with four teams on two points each.

England play Pakistan next on Friday, while South Africa face Thailand. "We really wanted this win to get the momentum going into this World Cup," said skipper Bismah Maroof. "I'm really proud of this bunch and how we played today.

"We picked up wickets at crucial times when we needed and put them under pressure, and then how our openers played, credit to them." The West Indies won the toss and chose to bat, but slumped to 44 for three off the first 10 overs.

Stafanie Taylor (43) and fellow veteran Shemaine Campbelle (43) came to the rescue - almost tripling the score off the last 10 for a defendable 124 for seven.

In reply, a 58-run opening stand between Javeria Khan (35) and Muneeba Ali (25) set Pakistan on their way, with Maroof, in her 107th T20, seeing them home with an unbeaten 38.

"We were gutted after the performance the other day so it was very important that we bounced back with a decent performance here, which we did," said Knight.