With a win required to keep the series alive, NZ women couldn’t perform as they would have liked resulting in Australia women winning the second game by 6 wickets. Megan Schutt starred with the ball whereas Healy, Villani scored crucial 50s to take the team home.
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first with both the teams remained unchanged. Like the first match, the White Ferns didn’t had the best of the starts with Megan Schutt picking 2 quick wickets. Sophie Devine 1(4) and Jess Watkin 2(4) departed in Schutt’s 1st and 2nd over respectively. The task on Suzie Bates’ shoulders was to hold the innings and she along with Amy Sattherthwaite put up a handy partnership of 60 runs. In the 10th over, Delissa Kimmince took the wicket of Amy Sattherthwaite. The team’s score at the end of the 10th over was 80-3 with Amy Sattherthwaite back in the hut after scoring 27(19).
With Suzie Bates looking set for a big score, she brought her 19th T20I fifty in 35 balls. The NZ team reached 100 in the 12th over. But in the 15th over, Ellyse Perry came back into the attack and took the wicket of Bates. She scored 72 off 52 balls hitting 11 fours and clearing the rope 2 times. The wicket of Bates provided a break in the momentum and the NZ team lost their way in the latter part of the innings. They managed to score only 24 runs in the last 5 overs. They ended the innings with a total of 145-8 with Bates scoring more than 50% of the total. Megan Schutt was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-15 from her 4 overs. Delissa Kimmince too was economical in her 4 overs, ending with figures of 1-17.
With 146 to chase down, Beth Mooney continued to struggle to score runs and was gone for a duck in the second over. Lea Tahuhu ripped through her legs and provided the perfect start for the kiwis. But Alyssa Healy continued to find the boundaries and the score at the end of the powerplay was 43-2. Ashleigh Gardner ran herself out in the last over of the powerplay for 16(12). The middle phase of the innings was highlighted by Healy and Villani’s Innovative batting, which saw them cruise towards the target. Healy brought her 3rd T20I fifty in 35 balls. She also became the third Australian Women’s player to cross 1000 T20I runs. She departed for 57(41) after Sophie Devine took her wicket in the 13th over. Healy smashed 10 fours in her innings.
With 35 required from last 5, Villani and Lanning ensured that there were no more hiccups in the chase until Amelia Kerr knocked Lanning in the 19th over with 2 runs still needed to win. Villani hit the winning runs and also brought her fifty in 39 deliveries. They chased the target with 7 balls to spare.Megan Schutt was awarded the player of the match for her excellent bowling performance which broke the back of the NZ batting.
With the 3rd T20I scheduled on 5th October, NZ women will be looking to get their combinations right ahead of the T20 World Cup whereas the Aus women will be looking for a clean sweep.
Brief Scores:-
NZW- 145/8 in 20 overs
(Suzie Bates 77(52), Amy Sattherthwaite 27(19); Megan Schutt 3-15, Delissa Kimmince 1-17 ) lost to AUSW- 149/4 in 18.5 overs
(Alyssa Healy 57(41), Elyse Villani 50*(39); Sophie Devine 1-26, Lea Tahuhu 1-28) by 6 wickets
