Pakistan came agonisingly close to a first one-day international win against England in Colombo on Wednesday, reaching 34 without loss in pursuit of a DLS-adjusted target of 113 before torrential downpours curtailed their hopes of making history.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s batting has lurched from one disaster to another during this World Cup \u2013 they had to be bailed out by Heather Knight<\/a> against Bangladesh and by Nat Sciver-Brunt against Sri Lanka<\/a> \u2013 and it looked like their frailties would return as they collapsed to 79 for seven in the opening 25 overs.<\/p>\n After an initial rain delay of almost four hours, England returned to add 54 further runs \u2013 but Pakistan\u2019s openers Muneeba Ali and Omaima Sohail looked to be making short work of the chase, assisted by the absence of strike bowlers Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone through illness. Only further rain saved England\u2019s blushes.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan bowled brilliantly and made it really hard for us to get into the game at all,\u201d the England captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, told Sky Sports. \u201cWe weren\u2019t good enough and we\u2019ll hold our hands up. Everyone\u2019s practising really well and I guess it\u2019s about finding a way to do that in games.\u201d<\/p>\n The no-result means that England remain on course to progress to the semi-finals as long as they win one of their final three group-stage encounters against India, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n This tournament has so far been a spinner\u2019s paradise, but here it was prodigious swing which caused problems to the England top order, after massive rainfall 24 hours earlier which washed out the second half of Sri Lanka\u2019s match against New Zealand. Pakistan\u2019s young captain, Fatima Sana, sent down a remarkable spell of 5-1-19-3, including a wicket maiden first up, bowling Amy Jones through the gate with an inswinger.<\/p>\n Heather Knight once again saved herself with a timely DRS review against Sana which was missing leg stump, only for the Pakistan captain to strike twice in the next over with two further hooping deliveries \u2013 one which Nat Sciver-Brunt chopped on to her stumps, and a second which struck Knight plumb in front.<\/p>\n Earlier, Tammy Beaumont had shouldered arms to Diana Baig and was bowled by a nip-backer which clipped the top of her off-stump, while it was the left-arm spin of Sadia Iqbal which did for Sophia Dunkley and Emma Lamb.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n