Northward Lanning's southwest haven

Meg Lanning made two things crystal clear on Thursday.

Firstly, she thrives when batting under pressure. Secondly, she particularly enjoys batting in Bristol.

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Coming to the crease with Australia 1-5 and needing to achieve the highest run chase in Women's World Cup history to defeat Sri Lanka, the skipper never looked flustered as she effortlessly peeled off her 11th one-day international century.

She finished unbeaten on 152, her highest score in international cricket, and she now has two centuries from two appearances at Bristol's County Ground, having scored a match-winning 104 to level the Ashes in July 2015.

"Obviously they got a few more than we would have liked," Lanning said on Thursday's chase.

"But we're very confident with our batting line-up and we knew the wicket was good and the outfield was fast.

"So once we set the base with 'Bolts' (Nicole Bolton) and I, we were able to accelerate a bit and I knew we'd be able to chase it once we set it up nicely.

"We were confident at half time but I knew it would be a good challenge."

Fortunately for Lanning and her Australian teammates, the Southern Stars will play three more group matches at Bristol's County Ground, against three tough opponents in New Zealand, England and India.

"It's a nice batting ground that's for sure," she said.

"It runs along the square very quickly. I've enjoyed it here so far and we've got New Zealand here on Sunday, which is going to be a really good challenge for us."

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Of course, Lanning enjoying batting at a venue is hardly unique to Bristol. Thursday's innings propelled her to fourth on Australia's all-time ODI run scorers list, ahead of Lisa Sthalekar.

She now has 2835 runs from 59 innings, including 11 centuries. It's already the world record for ODIs tons, but the regularity with which the 25-year-old converts half-centuries into triple figures is astonishing.

For her 11 hundreds, she had 10 ODI fifties and when she does pass fifty in a one-day match, she averages 138.60.

Her latest effort in Bristol was another display of Lanning brilliance. Despite limited time in the middle since arriving in the UK, she got off the mark with a boundary and found the boundary another seven times before reaching her fifty off 51 balls.

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She never looked troubled as she passed her previous highest one-day score of 135no, finishing unbeaten on 152 and polishing off Australia's victory in emphatic fashion with the only six of her innings.

Asked about her batting philosophy, Lanning was typically to the point.

"I don't really think about it, to be honest, I just go out there and score as many runs as I can," she said.

"I'm in the number three position so I get the opportunity to bat for a long time and when I get in, I do put an emphasis on getting a bit score and helping the side along.

"I don't think too much about it, but I just enjoy it while I'm out there."

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Australia World Cup squad: Sarah Aley, Kristen Beams, Alex Blackwell (vc), Nicole Bolton, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning (c), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Belinda Vakarewa, Elyse Villani, Amanda-Jade Wellington.

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