Match report
The next T20 matches will be on Tuesday, when Emma Kemp will keep you kempany, then Thursday when I’ll be back. If you’re fanging for some more OBO action today, the England-India match has already started.
Catch ya round.
Australia win with 12 balls and 6 wickets to spare
New Zealand had their chances. Battled with the bat early and through the middle of the innings, with only Amy Satterthwaite keeping them afloat with her 40 from 31 balls. Maddy Green and Brooke Halliday pushed their total up in the last couple of overs. And they were in the game after knocking over three batters early, and then Lanning with the score at 62, less than halfway to the target. But in a matter of millimetres they couldn’t take two chances to dismiss Gardner, and to put Australia’s lower-middle order under pressure.
Gardner did exactly her job, taking on New Zealand’s best bowler at a turning point of the game, and swerving that course in Australia’s favour. Belted her way to 73 from 48 balls in the end, making more than half the required runs on her own. Perry provided understated support, and more importantly got through her return match unscathed, although she was not required to bowl.
Fine bowling from Jess Kerr especially, with 2 for 17 from her overs. For Australia, the run rates were consistent: Vlaeminck 0 for 26, Schutt 1 for 26, Jonassen 3 for 26, while Wareham took 1 for 18 off four, and Carey 1 for 20 off three.
18th over: Australia 133-4 (Gardner 73, Perry 23) Mackay to bowl her off-breaks with little hope of affecting the result. Perry sweeps a couple of runs, then puts Gardner back on strike. The top-scorer decides not to go for glory with a six, instead pushing one run through cover. So Perry takes the chance instead, advancing and driving straight over the bowler for four. And doubles up with a pull shot at the end of the over to finish the match.
17th over: Australia 121-4 (Gardner 72, Perry 12) Sophie Devine bowling, but Gardner doesn’t let up. Drives a couple through the covers, slices a high full toss away through deep third for four, then plays a far more elegant on-drive for two more. Another double-digit over, and the job is all but done. Ten runs to win.
16th over: Australia 111-4 (Gardner 63, Perry 11) Gardner keeps doing it. Hayley Jensen is the bowler now, medium pace in at the pads, and twice Gardner shifts her weight across slightly and clips off her pads behind square for four. Sprinkle in a few singles, including one to keep the strike, and Gardner has brought the requirement down to 20 needed from the final four overs, while taking her personal strike rate up past 7.5 an over.
Half century! Gardner 51 from 37 balls
15th over: Australia 99-4 (Gardner 53, Perry 9) Gardner keeps on rolling. Swings at Mair and edges a boundary fine through deep third. Two runs to midwicket raise her fifty, then another two runs to total 9 from the over. She’s already played a match-winning hand, just about.
14th over: Australia 90-4 (Gardner 45, Perry 8) And that is why you don’t want to drop Ash Gardner. She decides that fate is on her side, and takes on Amelia Kerr. Large. Over midwicket. Into the seats. And again the next ball, this time square of the boundary rider instead of over her. Slog sweeps, both. That gets 15 from the over, and narrows the ask to 41 from 36 balls.
13th over: Australia 72-4 (Gardner 32, Perry 6) The return of Ellyse Perry, more than a year since she badly hurt her hamstring against New Zealand in the T2o World Cup. She takes a single from her first ball, and pulls a short ball from Frankie Mackay for four from her second ball. Gardner follows by going down the ground, and dropped again! Another magnificent effort from Green. She’s fielding a bit straighter, so she gets to the ball this time. Dives lateral to the line of the ball. But her knee snags in the turf and drags one side of her body back, throwing her off balance. She still gets hands to the ball, and is still hanging onto it. Up until her arms hit the ground, and that is one hit too many. The ball jars free. Unlucky after such an effort.
12th over: Australia 66-4 (Gardner 26, Perry 0) Gardner has strike after the pair crossed, and she pulls the sixth ball of the over along the ground for four, through square leg.
Australia need 65 in 48.
WICKET! Lanning c Green b Kerr 28 (28), Australia 62-4
The prize goes to Kerr to Younger! Flights the ball and has Lanning advancing again. I fancy that Lanning might have been thinking of going over mid off there, who is up in the circle. But the ball is the wrong ‘un, and it spins into the bat. Struck down to long on then, where Green is waiting. This time, the ball comes to her.
11th over: Australia 57-3 (Lanning 26, Gardner 22) Lanning’s turn to get some luck as she tries to launch Frankie Mackay’s spin down the ground. It goes a long way up, and Maddy Green is quite wide at long on. The ball is going straight. So Green comes sprinting across the turf, puts in the full dive, and fingertips the ball without being able to get enough purchase. Put in so much effort that it will go down as a dropped catch.
10th over: Australia 52-3 (Lanning 23, Gardner 20) Jess Kerr to continue, and she has Gardner dropped! Good bowling, a couple of dots, a shovel through midwicket for a couple, and then Gardner swishes outside off stump and into Katey Martin’s gloves. Only problem for New Zealand is that Martin is keeping up to the stumps, and the ball goes straight out again. The next is a thicker edge, past the keeper for four! Unlucky for Jess Kerr at the end. She bowls almost straight through, and finishes her evening with 2 for 17 from her four overs.
9th over: Australia 45-3 (Lanning 23, Gardner 13) First six of the day for Gardner! And for Australia. She gets a short ball from Devine and goes at it, instinctively. Amelia Kerr is out at deep backward square for exactly that, but it clears her on the rope by a metre or so. Dicey, but that’s Gardner’s power. Only two singles besides the six, so Devine keeps the damage under control.
Australia need 86 from 66 balls.
8th over: Australia 37-3 (Lanning 22, Gardner 6) Jess Kerr comes back to replace her sister, after Amelia replaced her. Swinging the ball into Lanning, who opens the face and guides a single to deep third. Gardner tries a drive and edges, but on the bounce to Frankie Mackay at short third. The slip is no more. Gardner tries to pull her next ball, though it was only on a length. Doesn’t get much, and duffs it on the dribble out to deep midwicket for one run. Two dot balls to Lanning, one angling into middle stump, one just outside off but edged into the ground. The last ball slips wider and Lanning can drive square. Three singles from the over, another good one from Kerr the Elder but cricketing junior.
7th over: Australia 34-3 (Lanning 20, Gardner 5) Back to seam-up bowling as Sophie Devine bowls an over. Very regular outside the off stump, and the Australians take four singles from it.
6th over: Australia 30-3 (Lanning 18, Gardner 3) The consolidation period doesn’t last long! At least, not with the field up. The last over of the fielding restrictions and Lanning wants to take advantage. She’s helped by Amelia Kerr bowling a couple of unlovely full tosses, one of which Lanning punts down the ground for four. Kerr gets her length right after a couple of balls, but Lanning skips down to meet one and launches it straight for six.
5th over: Australia 20-3 (Lanning 8, Gardner 3) A quiet over from Mair as the Australians look to settle. Only two runs from the bat, plus a wide and a leg bye.
4th over: Australia 16-3 (Lanning 7, Gardner 2) Jess Kerr finishes the over with her stock delivery, starting wide of the stumps and swinging in a long way, surprising Gardner as it seams further towards the bat. Kerr has 2 for 7.
WICKET! Haynes c Devine b J. Kerr 3, Australia 14-3
Another one down, the vice-captain this time. Jess Kerr has been bowling a touch short to the left-hander with a deep square leg out. The first such delivery was pulled out there for a single. The second, Haynes tries to really muscle a similar shot, and plays under it. A top edge that lobs to mid on. Game on.
3rd over: Australia 12-2 (Lanning 6, Haynes 2) Rosemary Mair feeds Lanning on the cut shot, and it often feels as though Lanning has scored about 80 percent of her career runs between point and backward point. Hits it away crisply for four.
2nd over: Australia 6-2 (Lanning 1, Haynes 1) A wide from Jess Kerr and a couple of singles, and that’s it from the over. What a start for New Zealand. They’ve got Australia’s engine room in operation earlier than is customary: Lanning and Haynes. It’s one thing to get them in though; you’ve got to get them out as well to win.
WICKET! Mooney c Mackay b J. Kerr 0 (1), Australia 3-2
Mooney goes first ball! It’s the other Kerr, Jess, the sister of, who bowls with some swing away from the left-hander and some bounce. Mooney cuts and gets a thick top edge. And you cannot keep Frankie Mackay out of the game. There she is at first slip, taking the catch, hurling the ball up in the air with a look of pure disbelief on her face.
1st over: Australia 3-0 (Mooney 3) Quite the tactical move from New Zealand. Frankie Mackay is an off-spinner and she opens the bowling. Her first of the over is a wide, drifting down the leg side. But she finds some grip and turn, spinning the ball back into Healy. One wider ball gets driven over cover, but well saved by Devine on the rope after a chase. And the wide is important, because it gives Mackay a seventh ball. That’s the one that provides the catch to Satterthwaite diving forward to take it low.
WICKET! Healy c Satterthwaite b Mackay 2 (6), Australia 3-1
A wicket in the first over, and it’s Australia’s cleanest striker of the ball. Dream start for New Zealand. Gives herself room, opens the blade, and strikes Mackay straight to point.
Australia must chase 131 to win
That’s that, then. Australia won’t be worried about 131, but at least NZ managed to get the ask up above a run a ball, and give themselves something to defend. Kerr will be key given the role Wareham and Jonassen played. The left-arm spinner took 3 for 26, and it was 3 for 14 before her final over when Green got a couple of belated hits away.
20th over: NZ 130-6 (Halliday 11, Mackay 3) Some late entertainment from Frankie Mackay. Tall, strong, dreadlocks cascading out the back of her batting helmet, she walks out to the middle jumping and jigging, then tries an elaborate reverse sweep against Schutt first ball. Misses it, but sufficiently distracts Alyssa Healy that the keeper misses it too. The ball goes down the leg side but isn’t a wide because the batter played a reverse. It does however go down to the boundary for four byes. Next ball, she tries a lap shot through fine leg, misses that, and is given out lbw. Except she refers the decision and it shows there was a big inside edge, so she didn’t quite miss it. She doesn’t get the run that she should have got though, given the Laws say the ball becomes dead once the umpire’s finger goes up. She finally belts her first run off the bat to deep midwicket, then gets the strike back for the final ball, and helicopters it away through square leg for two. Should be run out by metres, but Wareham’s throw goes awry and Healy has to undertake a pilgrimage to collect the ball.
WICKET! Green b Schutt 15 (11), NZ 122-6
Luck for Schutt, as Green steps way outside leg stump. Schutt follows her feet, aiming in at the boots, and it hits Green’s pad and ricochets back at an angle so sharp that the ball hits off stump. First ball of the final over, Schutt removes the danger striker.
19th over: NZ 122-5 (Green 15, Halliday 10) Jonassen to close out the innings at one end, but Maddy Green smacks her for six! Dead straight down the ground after a charge. Simple. Next ball, predictably, Jonassen bowls a bit shorter, and Green stays back to place the late cut for four. Splits the two fielders behind point. Jonassen switches to left-arm over the wicket to the right-hander, and it works as a ball spins sharply from outside leg stump and evades the bat, hitting the thigh pad. Leg bye and it gets Green off strike. A couple of singles follow, then JJ yorks Halliday off the last ball, no score as it jams between toe and turf.
18th over: NZ 109-5 (Green 4, Halliday 9) Schutt to bowl two of the last three overs, as per usual. The batters trade singles from the first three balls, then Brooke Halliday advances, opening the face a touch, and lofts a drive over mid off for four! Top shot. She debuted earlier this summer for New Zealand. Places the fifth ball nicely along the ground through midwicket, Green racing back in good support to create the second run, then the left-handed Halliday walks outside leg stump and goes up and over square leg for two more. A good over for NZ! They score 11.
17th over: NZ 98-5 (Green 2, Halliday 0) Wareham finishes her night with 1 for 18 from her four overs. Three runs from her final set.
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WICKET! Kerr c Haynes b Wareham 20 (29), NZ 97-5
Slipping away for NZ, as Kerr comes down the wicket and tries to launch over cover. Gets a thick sliced edge high over backward point, and Haynes backpedals and gets hands above her head to take a very good catch. Kerr couldn’t get any fluency tonight. She played so many big shots, hit the ball hard, and still comes back in with a strike rate of 68. Could not stop finding the field.
16th over: NZ 95-4 (Kerr 19, Green 0) Well then. Satterthwaite did drop the hammer in the previous over, taking 14 from it before getting out. But two wickets fall in five balls, and Jonassen’s over goes for two runs. NZ still haven’t cracked 6 runs per over. They’re battling.
WICKET! Martin lbw Jonassen 1 (2), NZ 95-4
Left-arm spin 101 from JJ. From around the wicket, at the stumps, like she does every match for Australia. Martin tries to nudge to the leg side, turns her bat sideways and misses. Hit right in front.
WICKET! Satterthwaite c Perry b Carey 40 (31), NZ 9303
15th over: NZ 93-3 (Kerr 18) Lovely shot from Satterthwaite to start the over, flicked off her pads well behind square from Carey. I’ve got Grant Elliott on my commentary stream doing his best Kevin Pietersen impression. Took a while to work out who the actual speaker was. A couple of singles, then Satterthwaite hits the first six of the night. Length from Carey, the batter dips her knees enough to get under it and lifts it over deep square leg with a cross-bat swing. Tries again and gets the toe of the bat, past off stump and past the keeper for two. Tries a third time from the last ball of the over, looking to midwicket, slices it straighter than that, and Perry at long on is one of the best outfield catchers in the game.
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14th over: NZ 79-2 (Satterthwaite 27, Kerr 17) Wareham keeps hanging the ball up there, and Kerr keeps going for it without really getting it. A sweep shot dragged past her leg stump, a straight hit that goes higher than it does long and is saved by the sweeper. NZ are only going at 5.64 an over thus far.
13th over: NZ 73-2 (Satterthwaite 26, Kerr 12) Tayla Vlaeminck’s final over. Satterthwaite keeps hanging back in her crease, and finally starts making contact with her drags to the leg side. Flogs the first ball of the set over midwicket for two, and the sixth ball even better into the rope for four. It goes high and plugs, but it makes the boundary. The middle four deliveries only concede two runs, too short and fast for either batter to do much with. Vlaeminck’s night’s work is 0 for 26.
12th over: NZ 65-2 (Satterthwaite 19, Kerr 11) Battle of the leggies again, as Kerr skips at Wareham and smacks her down the ground, again saved to keep the scoring to two. Almost a run out from the final ball as the two batters just about collide mid pitch, having to untangle their trajectories before making their ground. Six from the over.
11th over: NZ 59-2 (Satterthwaite 17, Kerr 7) Vlaeminck is back, bowling with a slip, and she bowls perfectly for that field. Right-armer to the left-hander, angling across Satterthwaite at pace, and hitting a hard length at 120+. Three times Satterthwaite tries to swing to the leg side, without much of an indication of what she was hoping to do. Fourth ball she decides to change the length by charging, and slams a cross-bat shot past mid off for four. Got the better on that occasion. But Vlaeminck has her number with the fifth ball. Again Satterthwaite hangs back and swings across the line. This time she gets a thick top edge, it sits up high in the air, and Healy trotting back drops it! A simple catch for a keeper, and somehow Healy lets it squirm free.
10th over: NZ 53-2 (Satterthwaite 12, Kerr 6) Amelia Kerr wants a piece of Carey! Tries the lap shot first of all and misses, while it doesn’t clear her bails by much. Sinks down on one knee to try clearing cover, but only makes enough contact to get a single. Last ball of the over Kerr advances and hits hard and straight, really well struck but it gets saved by long on running around. Kerr hustles back for two runs.
9th over: NZ 49-2 (Satterthwaite 11, Kerr 3) Sixth bowler in nine overs, and Ellyse Perry has yet to be handed the ball. So many options in this Australian team, and the likes of Annabel Sutherland isn’t even here. Tahlia McGrath and Sophie Molineux not playing, both all-round talents. Amelia Kerr sweeps her opposing leg-spinner for a single, skips down to flick another run after Satterthwaite gives her the strike back. Three from the over, Australia keeping them quiet.
8th over: NZ 46-2 (Satterthwaite 10, Kerr 1) Nicola Carey on to bowl, as Lanning keeps ringing the chances. She’s short of stature, medium pace, gets some swing, uses her lack of height to skid the ball through. Can be hard to get away, certainly hard to get under, and the batting pair can only manage three singles as show bowls straight.
7th over: NZ 43-2 (Satterthwaite 9, Kerr 0) Ash Gardner with her off-spin, and Satterthwaite uses her feet early and confidently. Gets down the wicket twice, aided by a full toss the second time, and hits one boundary over mid off, the next over wide mid on.
6th over: NZ 35-2 (Satterthwaite 1, Kerr 0) End of a double-wicket over. Over her career Jonassen averages a wicket every four overs against New Zealand in ODI cricket, and every four and a half overs in T20 cricket. Useful.
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WICKET! Jensen c Healy b Jonassen 14 (14), NZ 35-2
One opener follows the other. I’m all for inventive thinking in cricket, but anyone who has watched her bat knows that Hayley Jensen is not an opener. That’s a horrible shot. A short ball that really she could hit to a range of spots. Jensen is in three minds. Leaning onto the front foot, then trying to shift onto the back foot, she gets stuck in between. Ends up playing the ball with one foot off the ground. It’s outside the line of her body, and yet she’s trying to heave to the leg side. It’s a horrible mix, and it only sends the ball 10 metres straight up in the air, for the wicketkeeper to trot around and catch.
WICKET! Devine c Gardner b Jonassen 17 (22), NZ 33-1
The biggest wicket falls early! Devine gets one boundary away off Jonassen, skipping down to hit the spinner down the ground. But she tries to go again in the same over, a slog-sweep this time. There are only two boundary riders outside the circle, and this shot goes directly to Ash Gardner, who in this team has a mortgage on the spot at deep midwicket.
5th over: NZ 28-0 (Devine 13, Jensen 12) Schutt nearly gets Jensen caught at mid off! Jonassen tracking back dives but can’t get hands to it. Jensen trying the big muscled shot but slices it. Lucky that she gets just enough bat on it.
4th over: NZ 26-0 (Devine 12, Jensen 11) Jess Jonassen on early with her left-arm spin. Great record against New Zealand. Devine tries to take her on a couple of times, over the off side and the leg side, but only gets a brace and a single.
3rd over: NZ 21-0 (Devine 8, Jensen 10) Here’s the flipside of pace: Vlaeminck loses her radar in the second half of her second over. Oversteps while bowling the fourth ball and concedes a no-ball. Gets away with the free hit, because Devine steps away to give herself room, anticipating a bouncer, but instead gets a high fast full toss at her body. Just low enough to be a legal delivery, and Devine can only edge it into the ground to the keeper. Then Vlaeminck errs leg side for a couple of wides, way outside off stump for a cut shot to the boundary from Jensen, then leg side again for a glance to the fine-leg rope. No runs from her first over, 12 from her second.
2nd over: NZ 9-0 (Devine 8, Jensen 1) Megan Schutt will be the new-ball partner, her inswinging style from over the wicket, right arm. She pins down Jensen for three balls, then draws an outside edge that falls short of backward point. But Jensen pinches a single, and that gives Devine a chance. She’s played a lot of cricket with Megan Schutt at the Adelaide Strikers in the WBBL, and takes her on, first ball. Smacks it over mid on for four, with the field up. Streaky stroke, across the line, but the next one isn’t. Schutt overpitches, and Devine hits dead straight over the bowler for four.
1st over: NZ 0-0 (Devine 0, Jensen 0) It will be Tayla Vlaeminck to start for Australia, a new-ish young pace bowler who was the quickest in the world before a foot injury that cost her a spot in last year’s T20 World Cup. This is her first match back in national colours in over a year. And she’s lost no pace with the layoff! Starts at 119 kph, and soon works her way up to 122 and 123 as she launches at Sophie Devine. Most seam bowlers in the women’s game operate more between 100 and 115. Vlaeminck stays back of a length and straight or outside off stump. Beats a couple of cross-batted shots from Devine, and has her ducking a ball at the body that doesn’t get up too high in the end, but Devine gets under it. A scoreless over to start!
Teams
New Zealand
Hayley Jensen
Sophie Devine *
Amy Satterthwaite
Amelia Kerr
Katey Martin +
Maddy Green
Brooke Halliday
Frances Mackay
Hannah Rowe
Jess Kerr
Rosemary Mair
Australia
Beth Mooney
Alyssa Healy +
Meg Lanning *
Rachael Haynes
Ashleigh Gardner
Ellyse Perry
Nicola Carey
Georgia Wareham
Jess Jonassen
Megan Schutt
Tayla Vlaeminck
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Australia win the toss and bowl
“Just to settle into a tour, I guess,” says Meg Lanning of the choice to put the pressure on her bowlers first. Teams generally prefer to chase in 20-over cricket. The Aussies spent two weeks in quarantine but they’ve been out for a few days and had time to get moving again. Sophie Devine for New Zealand says “We’re not too disappointed to have a bat first, it looks like a good surface here at Hamilton.”
Preamble
Hello, cricket fiends. The game of the bat and the ball has been everywhere of late. The New Zealand men’s team had a frolic against Bangladesh earlier today in a 20-over match. The England men’s team will tackle India across 50 overs in a match starting two hours after this one. But here, we’ve got the Australian women being hosted by New Zealand in the first of three T20 Internationals, followed by three One-Day Internationals.
This time of year was roughly when the 50-over Women’s World Cup was due to be held in New Zealand, but it got postponed. The Australian team hasn’t played since hosting the Kiwis last September and early October, although the players have been busy domestically. Everyone in this squad missed the last few rounds of the domestic 50-over comp, the Women’s National Cricket League, and in the absence of some star players from both sides, Queensland won the Ruth Preddy Cup for the first time over the weekend, beating Victoria.
As for New Zealand, they had a home series across both white-ball formats against England, and got thumped resoundingly. They’re a team at a dead end at the moment, unable to generate much on-field energy in the last few years, especially once they reach global tournaments. Given they’ll be hosting the big one less than a year from now, they need to break out of that lethargy.
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