The New Zealand WHITE FERNS made short work of their Sri Lankan opponents in the final contest after electing to bowl first at a warm, sunny but blustery Saxton Oval as a sou'wester buffeted Nelson.
A strong turnout on the banks was treated to watching composed 20-year-old Thamsyn Newton step up for New Zealand with her first three wickets, in her third game.
Newton claimed an impressive 3-9 off four overs in her first player-of-the-day performance. The slight Dilani Manodara, at five, had turned heads with an equally impressive reverse sweep for four as she looked to turn up the volume for Sri Lanka in the final outing.
But in the 14th over she would be caught at deep midwicket off Newton to end a 37-run partnership with Oshadi Ranasinghe at 68/5. Newton struck again three balls later, bowling Ranasinghe on 14, then bowled tailender Nilakshi de Silva on one for good measure.
A memorable day for Thamsyn Newton
The right-armer had helped restrict Sri Lanka to just 86/9 after a merciless opening attack and sharp fielding — which saw two of Sri Lanka’s key wickets fall to run outs — effectively snuffed out the visitors’ hopes of rescuing at least one win from their tour.
It had been an over-eager start by Sri Lanka, who were evidently determined to impress in their finale on a long tour. Hasini Perera was run out for a duck in the first over when Devine rocketed the ball to keeper Priest, then it was Nipuni Hansika who was run out by Lea Tahuhu and Hannah Rowe in the sixth over, off a no ball free hit at 25/3.
Young pace bowler Rowe also broke through with the ball to deservedly pick up a wicket for the Series, after having performed well throughout without luck; albeit still stinging from having been slapped for six by Manodara over backward square leg.
Sri Lankan stand-in captain Chamari Athapaththu took the only wicket to fall in reply, but not before opener Amy Satterthwaite had put on a class 54 for the first wicket with Rachel Priest, the 50-stand coming up with five wides off just the first ball of the fifth over.
Satterthwaite, who found the boundary half a dozen times, was caught after a cracking 21-ball 33, while Priest slammed four boundaries and a six over long on to carry on to an unbeaten 37 off 23 balls.
Amy Satterthwaite was a classy and consistent performer
Having dropped herself down the order, captain Suzie Bates allowed Priest (37* off 23) and Sophie Devine (13* off 12) to close out the nine-wicket victory, Devine doing the honours with the winning runs, pulling one final boundary with 10.4 overs to spare.
It meant the WHITE FERNS completed their inaugural bilateral series with Sri Lanka unbeaten, after having taken the One-Day Internationals 5-0 and now the Twenty20 Internationals 3-0, plus maximum points from their three qualifying IWC games.
Captain Bates was named Player of the Series, leading the WHITE FERNS’ run aggregates in the T20s with 105 runs at 52.20 and having claimed 3-23 in the decisive second T20 two days earlier.
Allrounder Leigh Kasperek, who backed up Friday's triple wicket maiden with 2-7 in the final fling, was the overall leading T20 wicket-taker with her five wickets going at a cost of just 14 runs.
Meanwhile, the plundering Priest, the Sri Lankans’ top order nemesis throughout the tour, finalised her account at 88 runs at 44.00 across the T20 Series, to go with 316 runs at a powerhouse average of 158.00 in the ODIs — which had included her first two centuries for the WHITE FERNS from her now customary role as a top order icon.
The WHITE FERNS next disperse into domestic cricket and, for some, the Women's Big Bash League in Australia, before turning thoughts to a six-match home Rose Bowl series against Australia beginning at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui in February.
