With 3 players scoring a half-century each, the Australian team takes a lead in the 3-match Rose Bowl ODI series against New Zealand by 1-0. And with this, Australia has created a world record of winning 22 ODI matches in a row.
The first match saw New Zealand opening the game with the bat and posting a target of 213 after they went all out in the 49th over. Lauren Down, opener, was the top scorer for their side as she made 90 runs off 134 balls- her career-best score.
The game went well till the 37th over as top-order batters Amy Satterthwaite and Amelia Kerr contributed 32 and 33 runs respectively when their side stood at 159/2. They faced a huge setback when Kerr lost her wicket to Megan Schutt. After that point, The White Ferns lost all the wickets back-to-back ending their game at 212.
Schutt played a key role in the first innings as she added 4 wickets to her scalp in 9 overs giving away only 32 runs. Australia’s start to the second innings was decent as opener Rachael Haynes, skipper Meg Lanning and middle-order batter Beth Mooney lost their wickets early in the game when they came out to bat.
Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry, and Ashleigh Gardner took their side to a record-breaking victory by scoring their half-centuries. Healy’s 64, Perry’s 56, and Gardner’s unbeaten 53 thrashed New Zealand bowlers as they chased down the target at the loss of 4 wickets, with 69 balls to spare.
Schutt was awarded player of the match for her spell of 4/32.
Australia’s world record ODI winning streak from March 12, 2018 to today:
vs India 3-0
vs Pakistan 3-0
vs New Zealand 3-0
vs England 3-0
vs West Indies 3-0
vs Sri Lanka 3-0
vs New Zealand 3-0
vs New Zealand 1-0@AusWomenCricket | #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/rcF3ta7Eyl— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) April 4, 2021
Here’s what the two captains had to say:
Meg Lanning (Australia): “It’s a great achievement over a long period of time, shows how consistent we’ve been. Something we’ll look back on. That’s been a strength of ours, having key pillars throughout the team. We have a mixture of experience and youth. We like to play an aggressive brand of cricket. We don’t want to put any handbrakes on. We were able to keep it pretty tight early, that wicket of Kerr set us on our way. The way we finished was excellent. Alyssa Healy set the tone with a really attacking mindset, Ash Gardner has been in really good form to push it on at the end. The general theme is to play with freedom. We want to win the Rose Bowl, it’s one game.”
Amy Satterthwaite (New Zealand): “212 against most teams isn’t going to be enough. There are multiple things you have to look at, losing wickets in clumps is not ideally. We put a lot of pressure on the middle order to score at a rate. We weathered the storm nicely at the top but probably a bit slow. Thought Lauren batted outstandingly. We have to keep backing our skillset. We showed in the T20 series we can be competitive. Today with the ball we were slightly off…probably bowled too many four balls.”
With Aussies leading the series 1-0, the two teams will lock horns again in the second ODI scheduled on 7th April.
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!