Suzie Bates reached a remarkable personal milestone on 27 June 2026 at the Kennington Oval, becoming the first overseas batter to surpass 1,000 T20I runs on English soil as New Zealand chased a spot in the semi-final in their final group game of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The veteran 38-year-old batting all-rounder achieved the landmark in New Zealand’s fifth match of the tournament, a Group B fixture against a Charlie Dean-led England, finishing her England T20I record on 1,003 runs from 39 matches at an eye-catching strike rate of 119.4 and an average of 30.39. Overall, Bates leaves England as the sixth player to pass the 1,000-run mark in T20Is on English soil.
New Zealand, captained by Amelia Kerr, needed a competitive total in a fixture that also carried wider tournament implications after an earlier upset at Bristol, in the triple-header day, where Gaby Lewis’s Ireland recorded a historic maiden World Cup win by defeating the West Indies by 6 wickets. Amelia Kerr won the toss and opted to bat first at the Kennington Oval, London.
When Suzie Bates walked in at number 7, New Zealand were 126 for 5 in 15.4 overs. The experienced Bates, who first appeared in a T20I in England back in August 2007, combined with Maddy Green for a 37-run sixth-wicket stand that helped push the White Ferns to their highest first-innings total of this edition, 163 for 6. Bates stroked 19 off 13 balls, including three boundaries, while Green’s unbeaten 17 ensured the late push paid off.
Defending 163 in what was effectively a must-win for New Zealand, they had the opportunity to strike early when Bree Illing’s first over produced an opportunity down the leg-side, a chance put down by the White Ferns wicket-keeper Isabella Gaze, that also yielded five wides, and Danielle Wyatt-Hodge got off the mark with a stroke of luck in what could’ve been a three-ball duck. That missed opportunity, earlier in the innings, proved to be decisive for New Zealand, as Wyatt-Hodge regrouped and built a commanding innings, leading the charge in a record 128-run unbeaten partnership for the second wicket with Sophia Dunkley.
Despite a brief rain interruption, England’s response was authoritative. Wyatt-Hodge finished an unbeaten 89 off 53 balls and Dunkley 49* off 38, sealing a nine-wicket victory with 16 balls to spare. Nensi Patel’s solitary wicket (3-0-22-1) was New Zealand’s only real success with the ball.
The result ended New Zealand’s campaign in Group B with four points from five games, a tally that left the defending champions in fourth place and eliminated them from semi-final contention. But the match was more than a group-stage exit: it brought the curtain down on the international careers of three White Ferns icons. Lea Tahuhu, Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine, who have shepherded the team through transitions and served as the backbone of Kiwi women’s cricket for years, bowed out with dignity after long and influential careers.
Suzie Bates’s individual legacy is etched in longevity and consistency. She made her international debut in an ODI on 4 March 2006 and her T20I debut on 10 August 2007 at Taunton, the very ground where she later produced one of her most memorable T20 knocks, an unbeaten 124 off 66 balls against South Africa on 20 June 2018.
Across her England outings, she accumulated 1,003 runs in 37 innings, with five half-centuries and that singular century. Overall, in T20Is, Bates finishes her career among the format’s greats, leading the global charts with 4,758 runs at a strike rate of 108.6 and an average of 28.83 in 178 innings, including 28 fifties and a century in 186 matches for New Zealand.
Her record in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is equally outstanding. One of only two White Ferns, alongside Sophie Devine, to appear in all ten editions since 2009, Bates leaves the tournament as its all-time leading run-scorer with 1,254 runs at a strike rate of 111.96 and an average of 31.35 in 44 innings, highlighted by a tournament career-best 94* versus Pakistan in Sylhet in 2014. In this 10th edition, she added 38 runs across three matches, playing a mentoring role as New Zealand navigated a changing guard.
As the White Ferns continue to grow under the leadership of Amelia Kerr, and the veterans pass the baton and rebuild around a younger core, Bates’s milestone at the Oval is a fitting final chapter: a testament to a player who combined class, leadership, adaptability and durability across formats and continents. Her achievement, first overseas batter to breach 1,000 T20I runs in England, is both a personal landmark and a reminder of her enduring influence on women’s cricket.
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