New Zealand Women 181 for 2 (Bates 93*, Green 59*, Alam 2-32) beat Bangladesh Women 180 for 8 (Sultana 73, Jess Kerr 4-23) by eight wickets
A four-wicket haul from
Jess Kerr set the tone as New Zealand began their ODI series against Bangladesh with a comfortable eight-wicket win at the Basin Reserve. Having restricted Bangladesh to 180 for 8 in their 50 overs, New Zealand chased down their target with 114 balls remaining, courtesy brisk half-centuries from
Suzie Bates and
Maddy Green.
Bates put on 50 with captain Sophie Devine for the first wicket, before
Jahanara Alam gave Bangladesh a brief period of hope with two wickets in two balls, having Devine caught behind for 21 before bowling Amelia Kerr for a duck.
There would be no wickets thereafter, though, as Bates and Green steered New Zealand home with an unbroken stand of 131 off just 134 balls. Bates finished unbeaten on 93 off 91 balls, with 12 fours, and Green on 59 off 70, with five fours.
Having chosen to bat, Bangladesh got off to a poor start, scoring just 10 runs in the first six overs and losing two wickets, both to Jess Kerr's medium-pace. Bangladesh recovered via a 64-run third-wicket stand between Sharmin Akhter and captain
Nigar Sultana, but the runs came at under 3.5 an over. Sultana then put on 55 with Lata Mondal and 33 with Rumana Ahmed, but the pace of scoring remained sedate.
Having scored hit just one four while scoring 43 off her first 105 balls, Sultana managed to accelerate somewhat, hitting three fours and a six while picking up 30 off her next 27 balls before being run-out for a career-best 73. Jess Kerr returned to the attack to bowl the 48th and 50th overs of Bangladesh's innings, and picked up two more wickets to finish with a career-best 4 for 23.