From rugby’s Bledisloe Cup to netball’s Constellation Cup, matches between Australia and New Zealand tend to have a bit more fire than most. As the two nations opened their campaign at the Women’s T20 World Cup, even the backdrop was dramatic: the mountains of Paarl rising up behind the ground and the sunset sensing the occasion, casting deep reds and oranges over Boland Park.
But while the scene was set for drama, the Australians appeared in the mood for a light-hearted romp, taking a dominant 97-run win over their trans-Tasman rivals, despite a batting performance that will have them asking some questions before the remainder of their pool games.
Australia had well and truly earned their favourites tag going into the tournament, but a shock loss to Ireland in a warm-up game – even though they tinkered with their line-up and retired batters – gave New Zealand an inkling that there were weaknesses to attack. Snaring Beth Mooney for a duck in the first over only heightened their resolve, but from there Australia settled, with Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning seeing out a 70-run partnership.
It was a good, but not clinical, batting performance from Australia. While they kept the run rate up, wickets fell regularly after Lanning was dismissed and Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown – batting at 10 and 11 – looked almost surprised to find themselves out at the crease.
It was a match that demonstrated the importance of depth within a squad, and even outside of it – Australia could have assembled a second team to challenge this World Cup, with players across the Women’s Big Bash League knocking down the door of selection. Every wicket New Zealand took brought on another batter with just as much determination and belief. While Brown and Schutt rarely see the middle with bat in hand for Australia, they are more than capable. With the backing of their team, they kept the run rate ticking over until the final ball.
In contrast, after New Zealand lost both their experienced openers in Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine for ducks to Schutt in the first over, they looked rattled. The Black Ferns needed to slow their scoring rate to avoid losing more wickets, and from the start nothing was going their way. A controversial call from the third umpire cost them a third wicket when a ball looked to drop short of Brown in the field, but was judged to have been caught to cost Bernadine Bezuidenhout her wicket, just as she started to build momentum.
The slow scoring rate left New Zealand with a mountain of work that looked as insurmountable as those looming over the ground. They left themselves with no choice but to take risks and Australia pounced on every opportunity. Only Bezuidenhout (14), Amelia Kerr (21) and Jess Kerr (10) managed to scratch their way to double figures as Ashleigh Gardner made up for a lacklustre batting performance by excelling with the ball, taking career best figures of 5-12 from her three overs.
Despite the dominance that earned her player-of-the-match honours, Gardner took the performance in her stride, crediting the work of the entire bowling unit.
“I think we started exactly the way we wanted to with the ball and I was just lucky enough to take those wickets at the end,” she said.
New Zealand captain Devine was frank in her assessment of their performance.
“I thought we were really poor today in all facets of the game,” she said. “I thought Lea Tahuhu was great with the ball, Amelia Kerr was outstanding, and 170 was always going to be a tough chase. But the way we went about it, losing the early wickets, was always going to be hard work. Really disappointing, that’s probably the only way to sum it up.”
New Zealand now have two days before they take on South Africa, while Australia march on to play Bangladesh in pursuit of a third consecutive T20 World Cup win.