Lympsham’s Sophie Luff started the England Academy tour to Sri Lanka with a half-century.

Somerset’s Sophie Luff has kicked off her England Academy tour to Sri Lanka with a half-century against the hosts, which enabled England to win by 75 runs.

Batting first, England hit 311-9 from their overs, which included 54 from Luff, who shared a 103-run partnership with former Somerset player Fran Wilson. In reply, the home side reached 236-9.

The 23-year-old who plays her club cricket for Lympsham in the Somerset League, scored three centuries to help Somerset secure promotion to the top division.

Sophie said: “Since arriving, we have had two really good training sessions where we have had to adapt quickly to both the heat and humidity of Sri Lanka and the pitch conditions.

“We played our first game of the tri series against Sri Lanka A and won comfortably by 75 runs. It was a really positive start from us, hitting over 300 has set the standard and we’ll be looking to push past that total throughout the series I’m sure.”

The Somerset vice-captain went on: “On a personal note, it’s great to kickstart the tour with a 50 and contribute to a win. It was also nice to support Fran, she batted fantastically well and batting with her is something we’ve done a lot over the years together, we run between the wickets very well.”

“I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t go on and get a few more, but that adds to my motivation to do just that in the next game.”