Kent captain Charlotte Edwards helped England book their place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals with an unbeaten half century.

England Women beat India Women by nine wickets in their second group match of the ICC World T20 at Galle International Cricket Stadium.

England have won two group games and have one game still left to play, but victory today secured a place in the semi-finals.

India elected to bat first and were restricted to 116 for six from their 20 overs.

Katherine Brunt claimed the early wicket of Amita Shama in the third over but it was Laura Marsh who broke the 75-run partnership of Poonam Raut (51) and Mithali Raj (35) as Jenny Gunn caught Raut on the boundary in the 15th over. A fine forward diving catch from Anya Shrubsole gave Holly Colvin the wicket of Jhulan Goswami and in the following over the safe hands of Shrubsole saw Marsh (2-22) pick up her second wicket of the day.

Charlotte Edwards and Laura Marsh set about the run chase for England with a 76-run partnership before Marsh was stumped in the 12th over. Sarah Taylor (25 not out) then joined Edwards, who finished on an unbeaten half-century and became the first women to hit 1500 runs in T20I cricket, to comfortably knock off the runs with 17 balls to spare.

England Women will play their final group match against Australia at Galle International Cricket Stadium on Monday at 1.30pm local time.

Player of the match Charlotte Edwards said: “I’m delighted with the win today and to be through to the semi-finals.

“We bowled and fielded well to restrict a good Indian side, we batted really well on a great pitch and Laura and I were really pleased to make a positive start to the chase.

“The wicket was great today; the ground staff did a good job to get us on after the rain this morning.

“We’ve come into this tournament fully prepared and all of us have been training really hard, we bat right down the order and back all our team in these conditions. I’m looking forward to the game on Monday; it’s always exciting playing Australia.”