New Zealand women’s team marked their debut at the Commonwealth Games on the 30th of July against South Africa. New Zealand was put into bat first and the script for sure didn’t go South Africa’s way as it only had White Fern domination written all over.
Suzie Bates, the slow starter is blessed to have an opener in Sophie Devine who allows her to play her natural game. Suzie Bates only had a few boundaries and it was all the hard run ones and twos in managing to get down her ball count to nearly a run a ball at halfway stage mark. The acceleration still didn’t come from the calculated Suzie Bates as it only was a couple of boundaries in quick succession to ease a little pressure that was starting to build. The hard run ones and twos were back on as she got to her 50 off 43 balls. A boundary and a few singles in the 18th over were topped by a 15 run over and an 18 run over in the penultimate and final over respectively to complete her surge. Through the innings, it never looked like the calculator ran out of functioning as it always was ticking for Bates and the end result was a true masterclass.
From 10(16) at the end of the powerplay to 30(29) at the halfway stage mark and then to 48(43) at the 15-over mark, it only was as if Suzie Bates was surviving. That was the silence before the storm as the surge that came saw Bates finish on 91* off 64 and it simply was a brilliantly paced T20I innings. Call it a T20I masterclass from Suzie Bates as anyone watching would have said maybe from the 15 over mark she should have accelerated, but to have had the confidence in her to wait for the final couple and finish it in the fashion she did, it turned out and wholly was presented as a gem of a T20I inning.