WHITE FERNS captain Suzie Bates may be looking for a new coin after the latest Rose Bowl Series, but come what may the WHITE FERNS were ready to give Australia a run for their money as the 2017 Series boiled down to the decider at the Mount’s Bay Oval.
Here's our captain Suzie Bates with the word from the toss #WFvAUS 🇳🇿🏏🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/1xkrOJf32P
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 4, 2017
Sent in, Bates and Rachel Priest made a solid start on a good batting deck — in the 100th Rose Bowl ODI between the two countries.
Unlike in the previous game — when a drench of overnight rain had slowed the outfield for the first innings, this time the playing field was level and the crowd was treated to the sight of Priest scorching the ball to the rope from the outset as the team strung together significant partnerships to post a competitive 270 for nine.
Yet even that tally had seemed perhaps 20 to 30 runs light in the batsman-friendly conditions.
Priest and Bates laid a platform of 60 off 11 overs — whipping Lauren Cheatle for 17 runs off one over alone. The cracking pace was interrupted when Bates was caught by Alex Blackwell, clasping a two-handed diving stunner off spinner Amanda-Jane Wellington.
Amy Satterthwaite replaced the luckless Bates looking to keep the impetus going, and quickly found the rope herself.
However, for once it would not be Satterthwaite’s day — young Ashleigh Gardner elated at bowling the stellar WHITE FERNS performer on a modest 11.
Katey Martin finding the boundary. PHOTOSPORT
Priest was on 33 when she was joined by Katey Martin who, alongside Priest herself, would slam the WHITE FERNS’ equal top score of 77.
Rachel Priest slammed her eighth ODI half century. PHOTOSPORT
Priest’s fifty went up on the board at run-a-ball pace and included eight boundaries; and she would power all the way into the 36th over, before Katie Perkins came in and added a further 50-stand with Martin.
Martin took 70 balls to reach her own half century, then put the foot down as the innings hurtled towards the 40-over mark.
Katey Martin came within a whisker of a career best. PHOTOSPORT
Martin punched up the New Zealand 200 with a boundary off Wellington to begin the 41st over, and her ultimate knock of 77 was just one boundary shy of a career-best effort — falling only to an outstanding catch at mid-off from Meg Lanning diving high to her right.
"As good a catch as you'll see in a game of cricket." Take a bow, Meg Lanning! (Thanks to NZ cricket) #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/3H3rhbk0a1
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 5, 2017
But after a solid 230 for three on the board in the 43rd, the wicket was the trigger for a late Australian fightback. They took six wickets across the last seven overs to peg things back just enough, while the WHITE FERNS’ tail tried to chalk up as many runs as it could — knowing 300 was a fair score in these conditions.
At 270 for nine, Bates and the team had certainly given themselves a chance and an early wicket to Holly Huddleston — who once again bowled Nicole Bolton, this time for no score in her first over — enhanced the local hopes.
Holly Huddleston was Nicole Bolton's nemesis. PHOTOSPORT
But as almost always with this side, the wicket of Lanning is the key. Lanning had scored two centuries at this same ground in last year’s Rose Bowl Series as her team fought its way back from 0-1 to 1-2 — and now she and Beth Mooney dug in hoping to inflict a case of déjà vu on the WHITE FERNS.
Lanning had a lucky escape on 34 when a stumping appeal off Amelia Kerr was turned down and the pair was eyeing a century-stand together for the second wicket when Bates ran Mooney out off Kerr’s bowling, a sorely needed breakthrough just as New Zealand hopes had started to sag.
It wasn't the WHITE FERNS' day. PHOTOSPORT
Kerr had been keeping the run rate on the down-low, but was unlucky not to pick up the wickets that were proving harder to come by in this encounter.
Amelia Kerr built good pressure. PHOTOSPORT
Cue Huddleston, who came back, zeroed in one the off-stump and delivered a killer wicket maiden by bowling Ellyse Perry for just one run in the 23rd.
Midway through their chase, Australia was 116 for three — Lanning now having been joined by Ellyse Villani after the quick departure of the vaunted Perry. They needed a further 155 at 6.20 RPO to hold onto the Rose Bowl.
There were chances and there were calls that went against them, shies at the stumps that only just missed and that growing feeling that it simply wasn’t going to be their day.
Huddleston was all wicket maidens. PHOTOSPORT
Villani survived as an edge went flying just beyond a fully-stretched, diving Rachel Priest — off Huddleston again, but before long Huddleston had produced her third wicket maiden of the innings when she broke through (again) by bowling Villani on 37 in the 35th.
Blackwell, who had been missing for much of the fielding effort after her catch, came into bat next while Bates reintroduced her strike option Kerr — looking to attack at a vulnerable point while Australia was looking for a run a ball.
Kerr (0-31 off 10) was lean, she was mean, but she would finish wicketless this time as Australia entered the final 10 overs needing slightly more than a run a ball now, the rest of the WHITE FERNS attack left frustrated as any width went to the boundary.
Blackwell had shared a run-a-ball 50-stand with Lanning, racing to a quick 32 before Anna Peterson snaffled an sweet caught and bowled, her 46th over also conceding just one run as the WHITE FERNS breathed one last time.
However, Lanning was by now on the cusp of her century, Australia’s equation having shrunk to just 25 from 24 on the back of her classy innings.
Lanning did it again. PHOTOSPORT
Twelve runs off the 47th — including a six over long on from Alyssa Healy, backed up with a boundary next ball — handed the ascendancy back to Australia and they never let go, Lanning raising her bat at Bay Oval yet again and finishing unbeaten on 104 as Australia blasted home for a five-wicket win and 2-1 Rose Bowl Series victory with four balls to spare. Again.
Beth Mooney was named player of thre Series and Lanning player of the match, while WHITE FERN Amy Satterthwaite was awarded the NZCPA Player’s Cap — voted by the players themselves — as the most outstanding individual of the season. It was the first time Satterthwaite had one the award, Suzie Bates having won the inaugural presentation last summer.
