White Ferns beaten by England in T20 opener
The White Ferns have paid the price for some lapses in the field in their opening T20 international against England, despite a fighting 65 from captain Suzie Bates.
Set 161 to win, the White Ferns started well but got bogged down by England’s clever bowling in the middle of their run chase in Dunedin yesterday and eventually fell 27 runs short.
Bates admitted afterwards that the White Ferns would have to reassess their selections and approach, and particularly being “brave” with the bat.
“We talk about that as a group, taking the bowler on earlier,” Bates said.
“I don’t think it was a case of not trying. ‘‘It’s just sometimes when there’s four out and it’s against their spinners, we perhaps had a few limited options out there.
“But taking the game on and backing ourselves to hit it through or over the field ... we’ll definitely talk about that and we have been talking about that as a group.
“It’s taking that method from the nets to the middle.”
The White Ferns also paid the price for dropped catches by Maddy Green and Hannah Rowe, which helped England to reach 160-4 in their innings.
Bates said Rowe’s chance to dismiss Tammy Beaumont was “a tough one”, but admitted: “Maddy Green would catch that catch any other day.
“I think the way they [England play] it might not have changed [the game] too dramatically – they bat deep and they come hard.
“But I think we just want to make sure that we’re taking all the chances they give us, and we’ve worked really hard on our fielding.
‘‘So that’s one thing we can control.” Without the services of Sophie Devine and Melie Kerr, who are returning from WPL duties in India, the White Ferns handed a debut to Central Hinds batter Mikaela Greig. Bates won the toss and put the tourists in to bat in front of a crowd of 1255 at University Oval, with plenty of schoolchildren lining the banks.
After Green’s error, Maia Bouchier formed the game-defining partnership with Heather Knight.
The latter was dismissed for 63 off just 39 balls, while Bouchier finished the innings on 43 not out.
The White Ferns couldn’t manufacture a similar partnership in their innings, and also ran out of luck when Green was run out on eight runs at the non-striker’s end after bowler Charlie Dean deflected a shot by Bates onto the wicket.
Bates also said England’s tactic of taking the pace off their ball was successful, and “in hindsight” the White Ferns might have been better off with spinner Eden Carson in the starting side.
Bates tried to up the pace of the run chase, but when she was dismissed for 65 the game was well and truly over for New Zealand.
The White Ferns will get the chance to level the five-game series in Nelson on Friday, but concerns about their batting depth persist.
The scorecard told a story on its own, with Brooke Halliday the second-highest scorer for New Zealand on just 27 not out.
“With the bat in the middle overs we just struggled to find the boundary, and that was the difference in the*game,” Bates said.