The home side led by skipper Suzie Bates clinched the three-match ODI series by a 2-0 margin. Moving onto the shorter format, the T20Is, the visitors Chamari Athapaththu landed the first blow by clinching the 1st game by seven wickets to gain the T20I series lead.
The ongoing white-ball series has already seen a lot of debutants from both sides and the 2nd T20I between these sides saw yet another debutant as the young 22-year-old Central Hinds all-rounder Flora Devonshire was handed her T20I debut cap for the White Ferns. She earned her spot in the White Ferns squad on the back of impressive performances for the Central Hinds across formats in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Trophy and the Women’s Super Smash, the 50-over and 20-over domestic competitions.
She came into the squad as a last-minute injury replacement. She scored 78 runs at a strike rate of 83.87 in eight innings with a high score of 30 for the Central Hinds in the Women’s Super Smash.
Alongside her contributions with the bat, she also picked up four wickets at an economy of 6.38 in nine innings with the ball for her side in the tournament. She was one of the positives from the Hinds campaign in the recent edition of the Super Smash season, as they finished at the bottom of the points table with 6 points including just a solitary victory against the Canterbury Magicians and a washed-out game against the Northern Brave in the competition.
As far as her performances in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Trophy are concerned, she had an impressive season as she was the 3rd highest run-scorer for her side in the competition with 266 runs at a strike rate of 78.93 and an impressive average of 33.25 in nine innings with the bat, that included three half-centuries and a high score of 73* (71 balls) on 9th February 2025 against Northern Brave.
She also excelled with the ball in hand as she ended the season as the 3rd highest wicket-taker for Central Hinds and the joint fourth highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 18 wickets at an average of 17.50 and an economy of 4.47 in eight innings which included a five-wicket haul on 14th December 2024 against Canterbury Magicians, when she returned with impressive match figures of 5.3-1-22-5 in her impactful spell for her side.
On her White Ferns debut, she had an impressive outing with the ball as she picked up the wicket of Kavisha Dilhari in her two-over spell (2-0-12-1) in the 2nd T20I of the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. She didn’t get an opportunity to showcase her skills with the bat, as New Zealand clinched the game with seven wickets in hand and nine balls to spare to level the three-match T20I series.
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