England got off to a winning start in their Twenty20 series against New Zealand after Alice Capsey struck an unbeaten 74 from 51 balls – her highest score for England, and her first T20i half-century since July 2024.

Capsey has generally batted at No 3 for England but on this occasion was promoted to open in place of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, missing this series due to the imminent birth of her first child. She made full use of the extra time available to her, smoking three sixes and seven fours as England chased down their 137-run target with three wickets and 16 balls to spare.

Capsey’s was still a slightly more restrained innings than that of New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, who had earlier lived the high life for 21 balls, wellying four sixes over midwicket – including three in the course of one over from Sophie Ecclestone – but eventually crashed and burned, bowled by Dani Gibson when she finally failed to connect with a straight one.

Unlike Devine, Capsey not only reached the milestone of her half-century but saw the England innings through to its conclusion, sharing an unbeaten 64-run partnership from 35 balls with Freya Kemp. With the start of the World Cup now only three weeks away, she has chosen exactly the right time to rediscover some swagger.

As the World Cup looms, these T20s – three against New Zealand and three against India – should give England the chance to polish away any rustiness in the format, having last played a T20i in July 2025. Their ring fielding certainly looked sharp enough.

Nat Sciver-Brunt remains absent nursing a left calf tear – though we are assured she will be fit for the World Cup. In her stead Charlie Dean marshalled the troops well again, plus picked up a couple of handy wickets – bowling Izzy Gaze with one which turned, and having Brooke Halliday caught trying to go over the top.

Injuries aside, this was presumably something close to England’s World Cup starting XI, with Ecclestone, Dean and Linsey Smith as the chosen spin triumvirate, Lauren Bell as their one frontline seamer, and no space for the 18-year-old Tilly Corteen-Coleman.

And the course of play offered an intriguing insight into England’s World Cup strategy: Bell and Smith opened the bowling, while Kemp sent down her first two overs for England since January 2025, after an ongoing battle to recover from a stress fracture in her back.

Bell started the match off in dramatic fashion after Georgia Plimmer bottom-edged on to her own stumps off the very first ball. Meanwhile Smith claimed the huge scalp of the Kiwi captain, Melie Kerr, who drove straight to Bell at mid-off.

Kemp’s bowling return offered some encouragement, although the jury is still out as to whether she can regain the express pace which made her such a potent threat when she was first called up as a 17-year-old.

The oddest thing of all, though, was that world No 2 Ecclestone finished up as the most expensive of the six bowling options. It feels sacrilegious, but if Charlotte Edwards is serious about getting Corteen-Coleman into her XI, it may be that she has to do the unthinkable and omit Ecclestone. But that is a decision for another day: for now, time simply to celebrate a winning start.