Aussie World Cup allrounders put England to the sword

A glorious unbeaten century partnership between Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner has steered Australia to another World Cup triumph, the two masterful allrounders shattering England's spirits once again in a six-wicket rout.

The pair both enjoyed sensational days at Indore's Holkar Stadium on Wednesday, Gardner adding her second century of the tournament to two wickets when England batted, while player-of-the-match Sutherland finished 98no after earlier taking three wickets.

Their only disappointment on another day which demonstrated both the champions' extraordinary strength-in-depth and resilience to rebound from a difficult predicament was that Sutherland and Gardner couldn't quite contrive a finish in which they both got hundreds.

The other star of unbeaten Australia's fifth victory of the tournament, which puts them back atop the league table, was Alana King, who produced another mesmeric display of leg-spin, grabbing 1-20 off her 10 immaculate overs that thoroughly strangled England mid-innings as they were held to 9-244.

In reply, Australia, without injured skipper Alyssa Healy, had another worryingly stuttering start as they slumped to 4-68 in the 16th over, only for Sutherland and Gardner to put together an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 180 off 151 balls as they reached their target on 4-248 with 9.3 overs to spare.

Earlier, it had been King, who took the steam out of England's attempted mid-innings surge and, aided by three more scalps for the tournament's leading wicket-taker Sutherland (3-60) and a couple each for spinners Sophie Molineux (2-52) and Gardner (2-39), she put the champions in a powerful position.

With captain Alyssa Healy sidelined as a precaution with a "minor calf strain", stand-in Tahlia McGrath won the toss, elected to field first and led her troops with fine tactical aplomb after a tough start when Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones led off with a half-century partnership for England in the powerplay.

Sutherland, who's now taken 15 scalps this World Cup, made the breakthrough with her outswinger clipping the top of Jones's off-stump.

King was brilliant from the start and made the key breakthrough by tempting England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt to slice and sky one into the safe hands of Sutherland at mid-off.

"She's a special player, she's a big wicket. I was happy to see the back of her, we know how damaging she can be. She's got us many times in the past before," said King of Sciver-Brunt's dismissal.

"I kept it really simple, kept the stumps in play as much as possible and tried to extract as much spin as I can."

It was a combination that proved too much for the English batters to deal with.

Beaumont, their mainstay, battled to a fine 78 off 105 balls, but trying to push on amid King's strangulation of England's middle-order, it was Sutherland who got her caught niftily on the boundary by an off-balance Georgia Voll, who had to throw the ball up and re-catch it to avoid giving away a six.

Alice Capsey (38 off 32) and Charlie Dean (26 off 27) provided a bit of late impetus but England, who got whitewashed in the Ashes, ended up with that same sinking feeling as their tournament unbeaten record fell.

Their consolation at least remains a guaranteed place in the last-four alongside their habitual conquerors.