England comfortably beat New Zealand by five wickets in
their final warm-up game ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup.
After losing the toss in Dubai, they restricted New Zealand
to 127-4 from their 20 overs.
Seamer Lauren Bell and spinners Linsey Smith, Sarah Glenn
and Charlie Dean all took one wicket apiece.
England raced to 70-3 in the eighth over before Danni
Wyatt-Hodge was caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 35 off 19 balls.
Captain Heather Knight made seven and when Nat Sciver-Brunt
(31) was dismissed England needed 31 to win.
But, Dani Gibson hit an unbeaten 22 off 15 balls to see
England home with 18 balls to spare.
Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone played no part in the
game as the world number one-ranked bowler was rested as part of a workload
management plan.
England lost their opening warm-up game against
Australia by 33 runs on Sunday.
Their opening game is against Bangladesh in Sharjah on
Saturday (15:00 BST), before matches against South Africa, Scotland and West
Indies.
The tournament begins on Thursday when Bangladesh host
Scotland (11:00).
It was due to take place in Bangladesh but was moved
to the United Arab Emirates in August after civil unrest.
Tuesday's other warm-up games saw defending champions Australia
beat 2016 winners West Indies, external by 35 runs and India
beat South Africa, external by 28 runs.
Windies restricted Australia to 144-8 and were well set at
68-0 and 92-1 but lost their final nine wickets for just 17 runs.
India made 144-7 with Richa Ghosh making 36 and Deepti
Sharma an unbeaten 35, while South Africa, who were runners-up on home soil in
2023, could only make 116-6.
