Suzie Bates Sophie Devine Shine As New Zealand Women Beat India In One-Off T20I

Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine's good knocks with the bat were followed by Jess Kerr's two-wicket haul as New Zealand defeated India by 18 runs in the one-off T20I at the John Davies Oval in Queenstown on Wednesday. India and New Zealand will now lock horns in five-match ODI series, beginning Saturday.

Chasing 156, openers Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia put on 41 runs for the first wicket, however, New Zealand stormed right back into the contest as Amelia Kerr dismissed Bhatia (26) and Verma (13) in the seventh over of the innings. Harmanpreet Kaur's poor form in international cricket continued as she scored just 12 before being bowled by Jess Kerr and India was reduced to 67/3, still needing 89 runs in 55 balls.

Sabbhineni Meghana and Richa Ghosh then got together at the crease and the duo revived the innings by striking boundaries at regular intervals. Both batters put on 34 runs but the partnership was broken by Lea Tahuhu as she dismissed Meghana (37) and India needed 55 runs to win in the final five overs.

India kept on losing wickets at regular intervals, and in the end, New Zealand registered an 18-run win.

Earlier, Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine played knocks of 36 and 31 to help New Zealand post 155/5 in the allotted twenty overs. Sent into bat, the White Ferns got off to a good start as the openers Devine and Bates put on 60 runs for the first wicket.

The partnership was finally broken by Deepti Sharma as she got the better of Devine (31). Amelia Kerr (17), Maddy Green (26), and Lea Tahuhu (27) all chipped in with the bat as New Zealand posted a score of more than the 150-run mark.

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In the end, Katey Martin played an unbeaten knock of 9 runs from three balls to further enhance the White Ferns' innings.