NZ-W vs IND-W

Suzie Bates, is the Wonder Woman for today with her outstanding ton in the first innings along with Amy Satterthwaite, who made a 63, which gave the Indian side a very difficult score to chase and the New Zealand bowlers did an amazing job with the ball, just like what they did with the bat in this contest. The bowlers showed absolutely no remorse and gave the visitors a welcome gift for the inaugural ODI game of this series. 

The second innings started with two wickets falling in no time, as the batters were going after some deadly swing deliveries, outside off and the opening batters were nothing more than the spectators of the rest of the innings in no time. It was the skipper, Mithali Raj, who lead from the front along with Yastika Bhatia, who got the team the runs they were really wanting to get and they managed to get a 88 run partnership and it looked like the sun of hope was shining bright on the Indian-W's side but little did they know that the storm of the wickets was just underway.

The dismissal of both the batters was the turning point of the match and there was absolutely no one who could rebuild the partnership from that point. Jess Kerr who took 4 wickets made an absolute mess of the top and middle order of the batting line up and the wickets, eventually leading to the batters slowing down got more and more wickets coming in favor of the Kiwis and they managed to get the team all out for just 213 and got a victory by a big margin in this match here.

New Zealand Women won by 62 runs

Mithali Raj (India-W, Captain) : "We had a preparation camp in Mumbai for the series as we couldn't travel due to the rising cases of COVID back home and its good to play a series over here right before the world cup to get used to the conditions a lot more in advance. The bowlers bowled well and the spinner's experience has surely counted for us today. Scoring 270 runs and above is a must for us as it is the standard of the Women's game in the current times and even though we missed Mandhana, it is a good opportunity for the girls to score the runs."

Sophie Divine (New Zealand-W, Captain) : "It was great to see Bates do what she did with the bat today, surely what got us the target we needed and the bowlers just kept taking the wickets and Jess Kerr was outstanding with the white ball today. It was disappointing to 11 deliveries that were unused in the first innings and the wind was blowing rampantly, but we surely want to adapt to the conditions as the World Cup is coming up."

Suzie Bates has been adjudged the Player of the Match for her splendid century to setup the tone for this game for Whiteferns!

Bates: To reflect on that, pretty special day, start the series off with a win. I know, last summer it was disappointed how we started, we just want to make sure we put up good performances with World Cup around the corner, pretty proud about how the group played today. Coming off from the domestic circuit, we've played at this ground and we've had three innings here, it's an open wicket, so you know the conditions well and just been able to spend more and more time, you know what tempo you want to go with. I had partnerships all throughout the innings, anytime a new batter come in, I had no scoreboard pressure which allowed me to just bat, that's the blueprint we want to stick to and unfortunately we couldn't finish well at the backend, something that we'll work on. But our bowlers were impressive in the powerplay, stuck to their plans on a good wicket. My family is here to watch today and my sister always that she's a bad luck for her, because whenever she's turned up to watch me, I haven't scored runs, I said, it was nothing to do with it, she'll be pleased now that I scored a century today in front of her, nice to have family around!

49.4 Jess Kerr to Rajeshwari Gayakwad, OUT! TIMBER! It's all over, Whiteferns finish a comprehensive victory and go 1-0 in the ODI series. Back of a length on the off-stump, Gayakwad gets rushed on the backfoot, late with her shot, misses, goes through to rattle the off-stump and gone!

Rajeshwari Gayakwad b JM Kerr 0 (1b 0x4 0x6)

Rajeshwari Gayakwad, RHB, is the new batter in.

Jess Kerr has playedd some outstanding cricket and is the leading wicket taker in today's match. The Kiwis are just one wicket away from the win.

49.3 Jess Kerr to Poonam Yadav, OUT! EDGED AND TAKEN! Length delivery on the outside off, Poonam backs away to hoick but feathers it to the keeper who's standing up and holds on to a sharp catch.

49.2 Jess Kerr to Jhulan Goswami, OH! Back of a length on the outside off, Jhulan shuffles across to heave again, manages to get the inside edge that hits the pad of the keeper and goes past her as they pick up a single.

49.1 Jess Kerr to Jhulan Goswami, back of a length, shapes away wide of off-stump as Jhulan has a big swing across the line to heave, but misses, through to the keeper.

48.6 Lea Tahuhu to Jhulan Goswami, OH! Up in the air and falls between two fielders just outside square-leg. Jhulan looking to pull that short delivery, top edge's it and thankfully for her it doesn't land into one of those fielders.

48.5 Lea Tahuhu to Poonam Yadav, back of a length on the middle and leg, Poonam on the backfoot helps that one along down to fine-leg for a single.

48.4 Lea Tahuhu to Jhulan Goswami, low full toss, tails into Jhulan on the leg-stump, gets behind it and clips it past square-leg for an easy single.

48.3 Lea Tahuhu to Jhulan Goswami, bangs a short delivery on the middle and off line, Jhulan watches it and ducks under that one, through to the keeper.

48.2 Lea Tahuhu to Poonam Yadav, back of a length on the outside off, Poonam once again giving herself room, steers it down to third-man for a single.

48.1 Lea Tahuhu to Jhulan Goswami, length delivery on the off-stump, Jhulan on the backfoot lofts it just past mid-off and they get only a single as the long-on fielder comes around!

Lea Tahuhu, 8-1-31-1, coming back into the attack.

It is only a matter of time now and the batters are giving all the fight they have remaining in them before the match ends.