Kent’s Lydia Greenway saw the England Women’s side home as they comfortably beat South Africa and kept their World Cup dreams alive.

The 27 year old was unbeaten on 25 as England eased past South Africa by seven wickets to keep their chances of qualifying from the super sixes.

Anna Shrubsole took five wickets as England bowled South Africa out for just 77 in the 30th over with the batters knocking off the small total with ease to set up Wednesday’s game with New Zealand.

“We wanted to get ahead of the net-run-rate, that could potentially become a factor. We wanted to put ourselves in the best possible position looking ahead of the New Zealand game,” said Greenway.

The England batter conceded that the loss in the game against Australia had disappointed the side.

“The Australia game was disappointing. Today again the bowlers put in a magnificent performance. The game today was about making sure we win as well as we can, and our batters managed to do well after the bowlers bowled superbly today,” added Greenway.

Shrubsole set the tone early as she ripped through the South African top order to reduce them to 42 for four after eight overs. The Somerset seamer continued her spell to claim a fifth scalp and career best one-day figures of five for 17.

After an economical five overs from Holly Colvin (1-6), Danielle Wyatt cleaned up the tail taking three for seven from her nine balls as South Africa were bowled out for 77.

England took just 57 balls to knock off the runs. Unfazed at losing three early wickets, which included a quick-fire 14 from Wyatt, Lydia Greenway (25 not out) and Arran Brindle (28 not out) knocked off the runs for England as the game was wrapped up in the tenth over. England finished on 81-3.

After the game Anya Shrubsole said: “Personally it’s been a really good day for me but most importantly it’s been a great day for the team. We needed to come out here and do a job, win first and foremost, but win convincingly and we did that. I’m really pleased to be able to contribute to today’s victory.

“I’ve been looking to bowl straight and swing it slightly and just give myself the best chance of taking wickets, if you bowl the right areas on any wicket over here you are going to get success.

“The batters performed well today, especially Lydia and Arran. We stuck to our plans and got the job done within 10 overs.

“It was a perfect day for the team we did exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out here, bowl first, get South Africa out for a minimal score and then knock the runs off as fast as possible and we managed to do that. We’ve given ourselves the best possible chance going into the game against New Zealand on Wednesday.”

England Women’s ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 fixtures (Super Six Stage)

Wednesday 13th February v New Zealand, CCI, Mumbai, 2.30pm start (local time)