Beaumont, Sciver century stand powers England

Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver have powered England's women to an emphatic eight-wicket triumph over India, taking the first one-day international with an unbroken century stand in Bristol.

As the teams reconvened on Sunday after last week's drawn Test at the same ground, India failed to catch fire with the bat as they were restricted to 8-201.

Mithali Raj anchored with 72, but it was never enough to seriously stretch England's top order, who eased home with 91 balls remaining.

Beaumont batted through for 87 not out and Sciver smashed an unbeaten 74, with both going at exactly a run-a-ball.

"Once Nat starts to unleash there's no stopping her and at one point I thought I wasn't going to get to face another ball," Beaumont said after play.

"But she was very kind to me in the end. For me, today was all about getting the job done and being not out at the end. If I tried to keep up with Nat there's no chance, she's just an unbelievable talent."

Beaumont's 87 was her fourth successive ODI fifty following scores of 71, 72* and 88* against New Zealand earlier this year, and said a chat ahead of meeting the White Ferns with the team's psychologist, Phoebe Sanders, had proved a turning point in her approach to the game. 

"The day before the first game in New Zealand she (Sanders) said to me, 'You know you have a choice how you go about it'," Beaumont said.

"Ever since then her voice has been in my head as I'm walking out, 'you know you have a choice how you approach it, you can kind of go with the flow and see what happens or you can go out and try to dominate and try to be relentless'.

"And it's not about dominating like how other people might do it, my dominating is making sure that I put away every bad ball I get and make them really work hard to get me out and it seems to be working so hopefully it'll continue."

Beaumont and Sciver put on 119 for the third wicket, sharing 22 boundaries and one six apiece to put the more cautious Indian methods in the shade.

After choosing to send India in, England skipper Heather Knight saw her opening bowlers assume control of the 10-over Powerplay, during which the tourists limped to 2-27.

The first – and key – wicket to fall was 17-year-old prodigy Shafali Verma, fresh from a player-of-the-match performance in last week's Test.

Having excelled with 159 in her two knocks against the red ball, she managed just 15 before Katherine Brunt caught her in two minds with a rising delivery, and she swatted a catch to Anya Shrubsole.

Shrubsole then grabbed an early scalp for herself, knocking back Smriti Mandhana's off stump.

That brought Raj to the crease and she began her cornerstone innings, a measured and cautious effort.

There were healthy stands with Punam Raut (56 in 94 balls) and Deepti Sharma (65 in 85), but nothing that seriously threatened to disrupt England's plans.

While Raj pressed on with care, Kate Cross had Raut caught off a chipped drive for 32 and the returning Shrubsole pinned Deepti Sharma lbw for 30.

Raj had started to accelerate sharply but was stopped in her tracks in the 46th over when spinner Sophie Ecclestone snuck one through with the arm and flicked the top of off stump.

She had already taken out Harmanpreet Kaur for just one, and later added Pooja Vastrakar (15) to finish with figures of 3-40.