The White Ferns have lost a heart-stopping opener to England in their three-match ODI series, going down by one wicket at Chester-le-Street as the home side scrambled across the line with ten balls to spare on a pitch that punished every loose stroke.
Sent in to bat at the Riverside Ground in Durham, New Zealand were rolled for 210 in difficult batting conditions, before England crawled to 211 for nine in the 49th over thanks to a final-wicket stand and a costly New Zealand drop.
It was a match Melie Kerr’s side will feel they should have won. According to the RNZ match report, the visitors had England nine wickets down with the chase teetering, only for a regulation chance to go down at gully and the lower order to pull the contest from the fire.
Maddy Green carried the New Zealand innings with a measured 88 from 107 balls, including nine boundaries, and looked set to bring up her fourth ODI century before falling agonisingly short. Her 105-run third-wicket partnership with new captain Melie Kerr, who made 55, was the spine of the innings and at one stage had the White Ferns eyeing a total of 270 or beyond.
Then came the collapse. The last eight New Zealand wickets fell for just 63 runs as the English seamers exploited the slow surface, with the lower order unable to push the score to a defendable level. Kerr later told reporters the wicket had played slower than expected and that 250 would have been a competitive total.
“The wicket was a bit slow, we thought 250 would be a good score. We were set up to do that but unfortunately lost wickets at the back end,” the captain said in comments published by RNZ. “We fought hard with the ball to take it deep. We have to learn and be better but I thought our bowlers were outstanding.”
She was not wrong about the bowling effort. Rosemary Mair was the pick of the New Zealand attack with three for 42, finding awkward bounce and movement throughout her spell, while Kerr herself chipped in with two wickets and Jess Kerr supported the captain at the other end with disciplined lines into the wind.
For long stretches of the chase, England looked there for the taking. Maia Bouchier was the only home batter to settle, making 59 before being dismissed by Kerr, and once she fell New Zealand worked through the middle order with tight fields and patient seam bowling. With England nine wickets down in the 47th over, every delivery felt like it might end the match.
Then the moment that turned the contest. Charlie Dean, batting at the death with the chase still alive, scooped a full toss high to gully where the chance went down at an awkward height. Dean made the most of the reprieve, finishing unbeaten on 31 and steering England home with two overs unused. It was the kind of late escape that haunts losing teams long after the players have left the ground.
For the White Ferns, the result will sting more because of the timing. This is captain Melie Kerr’s first overseas ODI series since taking the all-format captaincy from Sophie Devine, who stepped down after last year’s World Cup. Kerr was appointed in February and has been steadily building a young side around the established core of Suzie Bates, Brooke Halliday and Maddy Green.
The tour is also the first full international assignment for several debutants and squad newcomers, and the Durham conditions, with their hint of seam and a slow outfield, will have been a brutal first taste of English summer cricket. The defeat means New Zealand must now win at least one of the remaining two matches to keep the series alive.
The second ODI is scheduled for Wednesday at the County Ground in Northampton, a smaller venue with traditionally a flatter wicket and shorter boundaries, and one that should suit New Zealand’s stroke-making top order if they can resist the temptation to throw their hands at width early on. The third match follows later in the week before the squad turns its attention to the T20 leg of the tour.
England will take heart from a hard-fought win that masked deeper issues with their own batting. Their total of 211 for nine looked the work of a side learning to scrap rather than dominate, and the New Zealand bowlers will know they were within a single delivery of squaring the series before they had even left Durham.
There is no shame in losing a one-wicket thriller in alien conditions, but the White Ferns will be honest enough with themselves to admit that 210 was around forty runs light of par and that a dropped chance in the 47th over decided what should have been a famous away victory. The next 72 hours will be about resetting the lower-order plans, taking heart from Green’s superb innings, and getting Bree Illing and the rest of the seam attack ready for another shoot-out at Northampton.
For New Zealand cricket fans setting alarms, the second ODI begins Wednesday New Zealand morning. After what we saw at Chester-le-Street, only the brave will tip a runaway.
What did you make of the White Ferns’ performance and the late drop at gully? Have your say in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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