England beat New Zealand in final World Cup warm-up

Danni Wyatt-Hodge will be playing in her seventh World Cup

Women's T20 World Cup warm-up, Dubai

New Zealand 127-4 (20 overs): A Kerr 64* (46); Bell 1-13

England 131-5 (17 overs): Wyatt-Hodge 35 (19), Sciver-Brunt 31 (32); Tahuhu 2-14

England won by five wickets

Scorecard (external)

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 by 35 runs and India beat South Africa 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.

Follow ball-by-ball coverage of every game in the Women's T20 World Cup on BBC Sounds, with live text commentaries and in-play clips on the BBC Sport website and app.