Tammy Beaumont says England ready to ‘grit it out’ against Sri Lanka’s spinners

Tammy Beaumont believes England have the tools to conquer spinning conditions on a used pitch in Colombo but has warned: “It’s not going to look pretty.”

Charlotte Edwards’ side started the Women’s World Cup with back-to-back wins over South Africa and Bangladesh in Guwahati and have now swapped India for the Sri Lankan capital for their next two games.

They take on the co-hosts on their own turf on Saturday and are expecting even more dramatic turn than they have already seen as they prepare to play on a pitch that is being used for its third game in just 10 days.

The game is slated to take place on pitch five at the Premadasa Stadium, which has already hosted matches on October 2 and 5, meaning Beaumont and her fellow batters will need to work hard for their runs against a team loaded with slow bowlers.

Australia’s Beth Mooney dug deep for a match-winning century at the same ground on Wednesday after the rest of the top order fell in a heap against Pakistan.

“We’ve been watching the other games and we’ve got as much information as we can. We know the other game here spun rather a lot,” Beaumont said.

“We’ve spoken quite a lot about how we want to go about our batting to counteract those conditions. It doesn’t look like we’re on a fresh wicket, so as a batter I’m not expecting the ball to be sliding on lovely.

“We’re probably learning that it’s not going to look pretty. You can’t go for those big shots too early.

“We may have to grit it out a bit and someone has to earn the right to go big.”

It will not just be a case of soaking up Sri Lankan pressure, though, with England bringing their own arsenal of spinners to the party.

World number one Sophie Ecclestone and and fellow left-armer Linsey Smith both have five wickets so far, with Charlie Dean and Alice Capsey chipping in with another six.

“England have produced some really good spinners over the years, but the four or five we’ve got at the moment seem to be doing really well,” said Beaumont.

“The fact that someone like Sarah Glenn is not currently in the XI and is one of the most wicket-taking leg-spinners in the world is a sign of the depth we’ve got.

“Ours are right up there…I don’t necessarily like to compare, but I can tell you facing them in the nets is not too fun.

“It’s a great challenge and it gets you really prepped for any spinner you’re going to face in the World Cup.”

England’s jittery win over Bangladesh came amid a slew of debatable umpiring decisions, with Heather Knight seeing three on-field dismissals overturned by the TV official.

At least one of those came as a surprise to Knight herself, but Beaumont offered a word of support for those in charge of making the big decisions.

“Umpires are human like all of us,” she said.

“If I miss a cover drive and get caught behind I’ve made an error…everyone makes mistakes. We’re obviously making a mistake if it’s hitting our pads or going near the outside edge. So it’s great we’ve got DRS available and that’s exactly what it’s there for.”