Image Credit- ECB
The inaugural
Twenty20 international of the five-match series in Dunedin was won by England
by 27 runs thanks to a performance by Heather Knight in a match featuring two
captains’ innings.
Knight, who chose to lead England from the outset of this tour by choosing to
skip the WPL, amassed an impressive 63 runs off of 39 balls, helping the
visitors reach 160 for 4, with helpful contributions from Sophia Dunkley and
Maia Bouchier.
Suzie Bates, filling in for Sophie Devine while the latter is back from the WPL,
where she won the title with Royal Challengers Bangalore, tried her hardest to
lead the chase with 65 off 51 balls, but the absence of Devine and Amelia Kerr
from the batting lineup prevented them from providing sufficient support at a
fast enough pace.
For her 100th career
T20I and first in over two years, Tammy Beaumont came back at the top of the
order. Hannah Rowe’s inability to cling onto an opportunity above her head at
mid-on gave her an early life on 1, and Beaumont showed some encouraging indications
before finding mid-off against Fran Jonas’s left-arm spin.
Dunkley, who had previously scored 11 from 14 balls, found her rhythm. Against
Rowe and Rosemary Mair, she twice hit the boundary in the sixth and seventh
overs, as 27 runs arrived to give England’s innings a boost. When Dunkley
reached her sixth boundary, she was really getting going, but Lea Tahuhu
returned the favour with the following ball with a short delivery that was
top-edged behind.
By the halfway
point, England was up 72 to 2, and Bouchier and Knight were trying to establish
a lead. Knight took some time to settle into the swing of things, and before
she hit her first boundary with a thunderous straight drive from Jess Kerr, she
was 8 off 10 balls. After that, she started moving.
The England skipper took Tahuhu over wide long-on for six in the eighteenth
over, which cost eighteen runs, and needed just 23 deliveries more to reach her
half-century from 33 balls. At that moment, 170 seemed easily within England’s
grasp, but in the final two overs, New Zealand skillfully recovered the
innings, conceding just 11 runs.
Laying down the
gauntlet, Bates took on rookie fast Lauren Filer’s first over with three
boundaries, a powerful clip, a massive top edge to third, and a smash over the
on side. However, England’s spinners, like Knight, proved to be more difficult
to work with, as the other batsmen failed to score at the necessary rate.
Before Sarah Glenn was skyed to short fine leg by George Plimmer, there were
flashes of her. Green was becalmed early in her innings as the asking rate
increased. Green’s stay came to an untimely end when Bates hit Charlie Dean
with a straight drive that bounced over the stumps of the non-striker, leaving
Green well short.
Bates just about
kept New Zealand alive before picking out deep square leg for 65 off 51 balls
at which point 52 were needed off the last three overs. The trio of Plimmer,
Green and Brooke Halliday managed 56 off 61 balls between them.