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England achieved a straightforward win against New Zealand, bowling the visitors out for 80 before chasing down the runs with 37 balls to spare to secure the series 2-1.
The win was set up by a catastrophic batting collapse from New Zealand, who sunk to 33 for six in the first nine overs. A Thomas Becket-esque miracle had saved them at Canterbury, but a second one was unlikely to materialise, especially as the in-form Sophie Devine was dismissed for a duck.
The win came in the absence of England’s main strike bowler, Lauren Bell, rested in anticipation of a big workload over the coming weeks. Dani Gibson stepped up with figures of three for 14, including the big wickets of Devine and Melie Kerr in the same over. Kerr once again chipped up an easy catch on the ring and her form going into the World Cup must now be something of a concern after scores of 1, 8 and 0 in this series.
The England captain, Charlie Dean, also shouldered some of the bowling load, both in the powerplay and at the death, picking up three wickets. Her astute use of DRS again came in handy: she chose to send a denied lbw appeal against Brooke Halliday upstairs and reviews showed the ball was drifting in to leg stump.
With such a low target England could afford to be sensible and wickets fell only whenever they deviated from that strategy: Capsey was trapped leg-before by Nensi Pateland Sophia Dunkley was caught at mid-on trying to loft the ball down the ground.
New Zealand could have made even further inroads had Halliday clung on to a tricky catch in the deep when Heather Knight was in single figures. Instead, a painstaking partnership for the third wicket between Maia Bouchier and Knight of 35 off 39 balls took England within 10 runs of their target. Knight reverse-swept Kerr to backward point leaving Freya Kemp to finish things off.
Having chosen to bat first in scorching sunshine, New Zealand had placed their hopes for a better start in a different opening combination: Georgia Plimmer was dropped after making consecutive golden ducks, while Suzie Bates was brought back to her traditional place at the top of the order.
But the Bates experiment failed to pay off, with the Kiwi veteran botching a reverse-sweep against Linsey Smith; three overs later, Izzy Gaze followed suit. It leaves the reigning world champions with something of a dilemma for the World Cup: who is going to open the batting?
England now move on to face India in another three-match T20i series, beginning at Chelmsford on Thursday.
English (US)