England's star batsman of the CricInfo Women's World Cup Claire Taylor is sporting a huge bruise on her inside right thigh, courtesy of Australia's Charmaine Mason, but a maiden international century did much to relieve the pain today.

Taylor, hit hard between pad and thigh pad, by four Mason off-cutters forgot all about the pain while scoring 137 not out to help her side to a 105-run win over Sri Lanka at BIL Oval today.

The win means England clings to the thinnest of straws floating in the vast Pacific Ocean in their bid to take a semi-final place.

But as CricInfo Player of the Match Taylor said: "As much as we can, we are concentrating on winning our own games.

"We know we are dependent on other things happening but we are concentrating on our next performance against New Zealand."

They must back up today's win with a success over New Zealand on Thursday and then hope that Ireland can upset South Africa on Saturday.

All of which is extremely unlikely meaning that England will depart Christchurch after the tournament with a heavy feeling of what might have been.

That feeling will have been exacerbated by the batting of Taylor and Jane Cassar today.

They shared a women's One-Day International record unbroken 169-run partnership for the fifth wicket (beating the unbeaten 151 between Jo Broadbent and Bronwyn Calver for Australia against Ireland at Dublin in 1998) and left everyone wondering what might have been had some batting success been achieved earlier in the tournament.

Taylor was already the most productive batsman in the side but her innings today confirmed her status as easily the pick of what has been a dismal English batting effort.

Her previous highest One-Day International score was 60, under pressure, against India.

"When you get your first international century you have got to be happy," she said.

Her 137 today was against Sri Lanka which would wrongly dismissed as one of the minnows of the world game.

Sri Lanka will finish the tournament sixth, probably one place behind England, so the innings needs to be kept in that perspective.

"It is almost easier to bat against teams like Australia when the ball has got pace on it and it goes when hit. A good ball is a good ball no matter who bowls it. You have to keep focused and not give it away. "During the tournament we've not been got out, we've got ourselves out and against India and Australia I felt I had given it away a little bit."

Being hit four times in the same spot by Mason probably contributed.

"By the time of the fourth hit I was in some pain," Taylor said.

Her 50 today was off 83 balls while her century came up 44 balls later.

Cassar was a willing worker in support of Taylor and the four she hit to move to 41 was the first boundary in her innings which saw her reach 63 not out when the innings ended.

"I've worked really hard toward this for the last year," Taylor said.

"It was good to be able to build a partnership with Jane. I was a bit lucky with a couple of chances.

"The pitches have been fantastic here and the white ball is always going to do things early on. We've lost a couple of wickets in the first 15 overs and then after that it has been nice to be out there," Taylor said.

In the Sri Lankan innings, the batting of Hiroshi Abeysinghe was easily the shining light. While she stuttered to a halt against the slow bowling of 16-year-old Laura Harper and captain Clare Connor.

Harper's performance of bowling 10 overs for 10 runs in her World Cup debut belied her lack of experience but did suggest she might well have been used earlier in the tournament.

Kathryn Leng and Melissa Reynard were able to polish off the Sri Lankan resistance by taking three wickets apiece.

© CricInfo