Match Report – NZ-W vs ENG-W 2nd ODI, April 04, 2024

England 252 (Beaumont 81, Jones 48) beat New Zealand 196 (Halliday 57, Gaze 47, Sciver-Brunt 3-21) by 56 runs

After scores of 15, 19 and 37 in the first three T20Is and a duck in the first ODI, Beaumont found her rhythm in a smart, measured innings. She and Maia Bouchier started watchfully, crawling to 9 without loss after four overs. Just as the England duo hit the next gear, Hannah Rowe took a screamer off Lea Tahuhu, diving to her right at mid-off to remove Bouchier so that after 10 overs England were 44 for 1.

Heather Knight survived a close run-out chance taking as single as Georgia Plimmer ran in from backward point and hit the stumps at the keeper’s end. Fran Jonas and Amelia Kerr kept a lid on England’s scoring rate but Beaumont and Knight managed to build at 70-run partnership off 88 balls before Jess Kerr deceived Knight with a slower ball on target as it struck the back pad, although it took a New Zealand review to overturn the original not-out decision. Jess Kerr claimed her second with a fuller, slower one as Sciver-Brunt played the wrong line and the ball crashed into off stump.

Beaumont’s footwork and hand-speed were at their best and she began to find the boundary with more regularity. Jonas enticed Alice Capsey down the pitch and Gaze whipped off the bails with the batter well out of her crease having faced 19 balls for her score of 6. Beaumont was looking solid until she took a swipe at Rowe’s short ball and looped a straightforward catch to Plimmer at midwicket. Jonas had her second wicket when Danni Wyatt tried to thread the ball through third and edged to Gaze, New Zealand again having to turn to the DRS to confirm the nick.

Bezuidenhout left the field in the 36th over clutching at her right hamstring as she ran to collect the ball in the outfield, then Charlie Dean edged an Amelia Kerr wrong ‘un onto her stumps as England lost their sixth wicket in the space of 59 runs.

Suzie Bates entered the attack in the 41st over and had Sophie Ecclestone caught in the deep by Maddy Green with her fourth ball. But Jones kept accumulating runs with back-to-back fours off both Jess Kerr and Bates. Jones raised the fifty partnership with a steadfast Kate Cross via a crisp four off Tahuhu. But Tahuhu responded two balls later as Jones paddled a slower ball straight to Halliday at short fine leg two runs shy of her half-century. Bates wrapped up the England innings with an over to spare when Lauren Bell chipped to Rowe at mid-off but England had added 86 runs for their last three wickets.

The absence of Devine and Bezuidenhout left stand-in skipper Amelia Kerr with a top-order batting dilemma and it was Plimmer who was promoted to open alongside Bates. They settled into a 33-run stand with Bates before Bell had Plimmer caught behind for 7, then Bates top-edged Sciver-Brunt’s first ball straight to Capsey at square leg to make it 41 for 2 for the White Ferns inside 10 overs. Sciver-Brunt had 2 for 7 from her first four overs when Capsey held on again to remove Amelia Kerr for just 14.

Maddy Green hadn’t looked comfortable, facing 26 deliveries for her first three runs before she scythed Ecclestone to the boundary through backward point. Halliday was dropped on 1 by Cross at mid-on, which would have given Ecclestone her first wicket, but Charlie Dean came on in the 20th over and struck with her third ball, trapping Green lbw.

Halliday and Gaze kept their side in the contest, Gaze capitalising after Jones missed a catch when she was on 6 off Dean. Gaze was closing in on what would have been her maiden ODI half-century just days after scoring her first T20I fifty in Wellington but, no sooner had Halliday brought up her fifty off 85 balls, and the century stand, with a single off Cross and Gaze was run out next ball for 47, cutting to backward point then hesitating before pressing on for the single as Beaumont fired the ball in to Sciver-Brunt at the non-striker’s end.

Halliday launched Bell for six next over but, as she tried the same down the ground off Cross with such force that her bat flew out of her hands, Jones completed the stumping and ended a valuable innings on 57.

Sciver-Brunt claimed her third when Jess Kerr picked out Ecclestone at mid-off and Rowe was run out before Jonas fell lbw to Ecclestone for a first-ball duck. Bezuidenhout was seen wearing her pads and helmet moments before Jonas’s dismissal but she didn’t walk out to bat and was limping as the sides shook hands.