The New Zealand WHITE FERNS continued their domination of Sri Lanka with the second 10-wicket win of their inaugural ODI Series — helped by a maiden five-wicket bag from leading spinner Morna Nielsen in the fourth One-Day International.
The win takes the WHITE FERNS' lead to 4-0 in the historic contest.
Scorecard
A fixture in the side since 2010, 25-year-old Nielsen’s previous best was 3-12. That was bettered as she combined with Anna Peterson to take three wickets in the space of 11 balls through the middle, then eclipsed — as teammates nervously held their breath — by the second to last ball of her lean 10 overs.
Player of the match as she snuck into the list of top 10 all-time ODI bowling performances for the WHITE FERNS, Nielsen had ripped the heart out of the Sri Lankan order as she spun to 5-21 at a sunny Bert Sutcliffe Oval — a performance that included a wicket maiden and the crucial wicket of Sri Lankan opener Chamari Athapaththu, whom she bowled on 56 en route to New Zealand record figures against Sri Lanka in ODIs.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had bravely elected to bat first, and fought hard across their 46.2 overs, but a tally of 126 all out was never going to threaten a WHITE FERNS top order that had already put a power of runs on the board throughout the Series.
After scoring twin centuries and a fify in the previous three matches, opener Rachel Priest was permitted to rest her feet down the order as Amy Satterthwaite moved up to open with captain Suzie Bates.
Bates cruised to an unbeaten 70 off 51 balls, while Sattertwaite narrowly missed a half century of her own as she clipped a boundary and a single off the final two balls of the chase to bring up the winning runs unbeaten on 49.
It was the first time the WHITE FERNS had produced three consecutive century opening stands in One-Day Internationals.
The fifth and final ODI will unfold at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on Friday; followed by a three-match Twenty20 International Series in Christchurch and Nelson.
