Beth Mooney’s consecutive half-centuries and Annabel Sutherland’s all-round heroics give visitors, their maiden T20I series win in New Zealand.
Wicket-keeper batter Beth Mooney and Georgia Voll orchestrated a dominant 8-wicket victory to get the T20I series lead. An unfortunate injury to Ashleigh Gardner ruled her out of the remainder of the T20I series against New Zealand.
The visitors, Australia made a couple of changes, Alana King replaced Ashleigh Gardner and Kim Garth replaced Megan Schutt in their starting 11, while the home side retained the same team that took the field in their previous encounter.
Beth Mooney’s consecutive half-centuries
The Australian openers Georgia Voll and wicket-keeper batter Beth Mooney got their side off to a blistering start, after skipper Tahlia McGrath won the toss and opted to bat first, in the 2nd T20I at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui. The pair scored at a rate of over 11 runs an over en route to their 57-run opening partnership.
Sophie Devine broke the stand by removing Georgia Voll (36 off 20 balls) in the final over of the powerplay, providing the first breakthrough for the home side. Phoebe Litchfield joined Beth Mooney at the crease and the duo took the momentum forward with another massive 69-run partnership for the 2nd wicket, taking them closer to the 130-run mark. Jess Kerr picked up the wicket of Phoebe Litchfield (32 off 29 balls) to provide the 2nd breakthrough for New Zealand, in the 14th over of the innings.
A blockbuster finish from the visitors, saw them breach the 200-run mark as they cranked up 70 runs in the last six overs of their innings. Wicket-keeper batter Beth Mooney (70 off 42 balls) notched up her 2nd consecutive half-century, while Ellyse Perry (29* off 15 balls), and Annabel Sutherland (23* off 15 balls) provided the finishing touches to the innings for Australia.
Annabel Sutherland’s T20I career-best figures
Chasing a massive target of 205, the home side bottled up under pressure as they folded up for 122, with 23 balls to spare. As a result, falling 82 runs short of the target. The home side never really got the platform to launch a counter-attack on the Australian bowlers. The 42-run 5th wicket partnership between Amelia Kerr and Maddy Green was the highest partnership of the run chase. A few batters got decent starts but failed to convert it into a match-defining innings for the home side.
Amelia Kerr (40 off 36 balls) top scored with the bat for the White Ferns, while, Maddy Green (22 off 18 balls), Jess Kerr (14 off 7 balls), skipper Suzie Bates (12 off 7 balls), and Georgia Plimmer (14 off 10 balls) showed a lot of promise with the bat for the home side.
Annabel Sutherland (2.1-0-8-4) was the stand-out performer with the ball for the visitors, returning with her career-best figures in the T20I format. Alana King (4-0-27-3), and Darcie Brown (4-0-23-2) played their part with the ball for Australia. The veteran wicket-keeper Beth Mooney clinched back-to-back Player of the Match awards for her impressive innings at the top of the order. The Tahlia McGrath-led Australia sealed their maiden T20I series win in New Zealand in a dominant fashion, with a game to go in the series.
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