Women’s World Championship 2022: Riding a Suzie Bates Quickfire Fifty, New Zealand defeated Bangladesh by 9 wickets in a rain-affected match in Dunedin to open their account in the tournament.
Suzie Bates led New Zealand to a 9-wicket win over Bangladesh (AFP Photo)
New Zealand bounced back from their loss to the West Indies by winning a rainy match at the University Oval in Dunedin to open their 2022 Women’s World Cup tally. With the match reduced to 27 overs a side, New Zealand shot down the 141-run goal with ease, riding Suzie Bates’ unbeaten 79 on Monday.
New Zealand suffered a crushing defeat at home to the West Indies in their World Cup opener. Chasing 260, New Zealand failed to shoot 6 runs in the final, losing three wickets in the process. However, the White Ferns were unable to equalize until the final over on Monday when they crossed the finish line in just 20 overs in Dunedin in wet conditions.
Despite captain Sophie Devine’s early loss for 14, New Zealand rode a 108-run unbeaten streak between Bates and Amelia Kerr to make the chase easy in their 2nd game of the tournament.
While Bates hit 8 boundaries on her 68-ball 79, Amelia continued on her good form and missed 5 boundaries on her 37-ball 47.
Captain Sophie Devine stressed that New Zealand was happy after recovering from their opening defeat, saying: “It is in the nature of the tournament that games come quickly and with very little turnaround time. I am grateful to the ground staff for getting a game of almost 50 overs, to Bangladesh for showing up and the umpires for getting the game going.”
Earlier, Bangladesh got off to a solid start with 59 runs in less than 10 overs for the opening wicket. Shamima Sultana hit 33 of 36 balls and Fargana Hoque had 50, but the rest of the Bangladeshi batting force made no significant contributions.
There were no fewer than 3 runouts in Bangladesh’s innings, although Satterthwaite took 3 wickets to top the New Zealand bowling charts.
The White Ferns meet India in Hamilton on Thursday and captain Devine is confident of their chances after a 4-1 win in a recently ended ODI series at home to Mithali Raj’s side.
“We know the competition is very tough, we’re happy to get the win here and we’ll be playing India next, we played them last month and we know what’s coming,” said Devine.
Short Score, CWC 2022 New Zealand vs Bangladesh
New Zealand 144/1 in 20 overs (Bates 79*, Kerr 47*) beat Bangladesh 140/8 in 27 overs (Hoque 52; Satterthwaite 3/25) by 9 wickets.
