It was a last-ball thriller for the New Zealand Women as they defeated Australia in the second T20I of the three-match series. With New Zealand captain Satterthwaite winning the toss and electing to field first, the Australian side opened the game with the bat.
Australian opener Beth Mooney remained unbeaten at the end of the first innings at 61*(54) as her side posted a total of 129 at the loss of 4 wickets, leaving New Zealand to chase 130 in 120 balls. Jess Kerr and Frances Mackay helped the white ferns take down the four batters with 2 and 1 wickets each.
The New Zealand bowlers had restricted the visitors to a par score of 130. But Australia looked set to clinch the series 2-0 as they had the hosts needing 21 runs in the last two overs of the second innings. Mackay gave a good start to her side by scoring 46 off 39 deliveries but was taken down by Darcie Brown in the 12th over.
New Zealand’s middle-order batters Maddy Green 16*(8) and Hannah Rowe 14*(10) were stars of the show as they held an unbeaten 30-run partnership for the seventh wicket after they were restricted to 101/6 at the end of the 17th over.
The match kept getting intense as they required 3 runs off the last delivery and Green found the boundary on the last ball of the game thereby winning the game for the white ferns.
Mackay’s 46 and Amelia Kerr’s 36 off 33 before Green and Rowe’s game played a crucial role in today’s game, and the former was also declared the player of the match.
“It’s a little bit tender, to be honest, but you’d take all the pain in the world to get a win like that. I shocked myself and my teammates as well to see those shots go over the rope. Sometimes when the heart rate’s going a bit, you have to take a deep breath and look around and think, this is why we do it,” said Mackay.
“We felt like we needed to take wickets to stay in the contest, so it was a matter of balancing that with the run rate. That last ball, I don’t think there was too much wrong with it, but that’s the way it goes,” said the Australian Captain Meg Lanning.
Satterthwaite, the stand-in captain for The White Ferns, post the victory said- “I felt a bit rusty to begin with, you’re having to think all the time. I spoke about it before the game, said that if everyone executed their role then we’d be in a good position, and everybody did that. We fielded outstanding, all the bowlers did their job. I said before batting that I wanted us to try to get ahead of the rate, and that didn’t happen. But the way that Frankie Mackay stuck in and got us ahead there was important. Opening the batting and opening the bowling, it was a big day for her, but she was brilliant. Stepped up to the challenge and took it with both hands. I’ll take a French cut any day of the week. We’ve lost a game to Australia in that fashion, so we’ll take a win.”
The two teams will lock horns again in the series decider match which is scheduled on Thursday.
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I’m a Senior Masters student pursuing Journalism and Mass Communication. An all time Cricket enthusiast. I could never play the game but always loved watching it, and now writing about it!