Batting with two bad fingers not a problem At a glance
Batting with two bad fingers, Katie Perkins posted her highest one-day international score as the White Ferns returned to action after an 11-month break.
But while her 83-ball 78 lifted her side to 259-9 at the end of their 50 overs on Saturday, South Africa were largely untroubled in chasing it down and claiming their first win on New Zealand soil.
Led by opener Lizelle Lee, who fell one run short of making her third ODI hundred, South Africa stayed in touch with the required run rate from the start of the innings, and were never really put under pressure, losing their first wicket with 163 runs already on the board.
‘‘I’d say we had a par total on the board, but we let them stay 20 runs ahead of the game the entire time and it was hard to get back in the game,’’ Perkins said afterwards.
‘‘It wasn’t like we missed many chances – I think we pretty much took whatever came our way, but didn’t build enough pressure.’’
Perkins has been playing for most of the summer with a broken finger in her left hand and a finger that had been dislocated in her right.
She gets by by taping two fingers on her left hand together and sticking them in one hole of her glove – and on the evidence on display on Saturday at Eden Park Outer Oval, it’s not slowing her down.
‘‘I’ve just got used to it now,’’ Perkins said. ‘‘I don’t really think about it. It’s my new normal.’’
Perkins suffered both injuries in the same match while playing for the Auckland Hearts – a Hallyburton Johnstone Shield clash with the Otago Sparks at the start of December – yet was able to bat when needed.
‘‘I thought if I can do it when it’s that sore, I can do it for the rest of the season no dramas.
‘‘The specialist wasn’t too happy when I went and played against his advice, but the hand therapist was on my side and sorted me out.’’
Saturday’s match was the White Ferns’ first in 11 months, which meant there was a bit of reconnecting to be done in the middle, Perkins said.
The White Ferns finished strongly, adding 73 in the final 10 overs, but failed to put South
Africa under pressure with the ball early on.
When they finally did so, pushing the asking rate over six runs per over for the first time with six overs to go, the visitors had enough wickets in hand that they were able to take the risks they needed to, and they got home with nine balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.
The two teams will be back at Eden Park Outer Oval today, where they are likely to be greeted by a slower pitch for the second contest in the three-match series.
‘‘It will probably be a bit slower and then it’s up to us batters,’’ Perkins said.
‘‘Once you’re in, you’re away, and that’s what the South African partnerships showed, that once you’re in, it’s pretty easy, so we’ll take lessons from what we saw them do batting-wise and as a bowling unit we’ll try use the wicket to our advantage.
‘‘Our spinners I thought were pretty effective today, and our pacies probably need to look at their change-ups a bit more.’’
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