New Zealand v Australia, 50 overs, Basin Reserve, 21 & 23 December 2024
The intention was to laud the world champions. This was New Zealand’s first appearance at home since their surprise victory in the World T20 in Dubai in October, and it was appropriate for it to be at the Basin, home ground of the captain, Sophie Devine and player of the tournament Melie Kerr. And laud the world champions we did, but it was the 50-over title holders Australia that attracted the praise as they confirmed their vast superiority in the longer form of the game.
This was no surprise. Before the three-match series began, the RA Vance Pessimists agreed that the best chance of home success rested in the Wellington weather, always a capricious presence. As we saw it, there was next-to-no chance of New Zealand winning two matches against the green-and-gold juggernaut, but if the capital’s resident tempest were to wash away two of the games, there would be a chance that they could abscond with the other, particularly if the southerly could roar in and impose temperatures that the Australians had experienced only in the walk-in beer fridges that feature in some Australasian supermarkets.
It was a strategy that had promise when the first game was abandoned at an early stage. Indeed, had the rain come ten overs earlier it would have accounted for the second too, but when it arrived it was like a boxing referee intervening to declare that the contest was over through being too one-sided.
Australia were put in by Sophie Devine. For the greater part of the innings it appeared to be a good decision. Though all the top seven attained double figures, wickets kept falling. At 211 for six after 41 overs it seemed possible that the target might be a tough-but-gettable 250-260.
But Annabel Sutherland was still there. At that point she had 47 from 52 deliveries, and continued to be measured but untroubled for a further five overs, at which point she had 63 from 64. New Zealand could have thought that they were in the race only then to discover that they were in a Corolla while Sutherland was at the wheel of a Ferrari, the throttle of which she now depressed smoothly, becoming a dot in the distance before the bowlers realised what had happened. In the last four overs of Australia’s innings she scored 42 runs in 17 balls, including six fours and two sixes.
In the past couple of weeks we have seen fine centuries by Harry Brook and Joe Root at the Basin. Sutherland’s unbeaten 105 was as impressive in many ways, including judgement, planning and execution, and its repertoire of classical shots. She accelerated but never hurried. At 23-years-old she is proof that the quality of the Australian team will perpetuate beyond the Healy/Lanning/Perry generation.
Australia does not have all the talented 23-year-old cricketers. Auckland’s Molly Penfold dismissed Healy, Perry, Mooney and McGrath on her way to four for 42, as impressive a display of disciplined medium-fast bowling as I can recall from the White Ferns. Penfold and the other bowlers received disappointing support from the fielders, with at least half-a-dozen chances going down, the women emulating the standards of the men in the first test against England.
It was one of those afternoons when the informed spectator held the rain radar in one hand and the DLS charts in the other. The near certainty of an early finish should have worked in New Zealand’s favour, but the ocean of quality between the teams was a journey too far. When the rain reached us, in the 31st over, they were already 65 behind the adjusted target. There were two many dot balls off an attack that was doing its best Scrooge impression in the spirit of the season.
The third match was the first of the series to proceed without the intervention of the weather. It was warm and many of the pohutukawas were flowering, a crimson pelmet to the grass bank along the eastern side of the Basin. A perfect day to be at the cricket. Australia batted first, this time of their own choosing. After 31 overs they were 190 for four, apparently heading for a total somewhere in the 350-plus stratosphere. But the wickets kept falling, with Sophie Devine dismissing Sutherland, and the usually hard-hitting McGrath who did not find the boundary in 33 balls today. Kerr, wicketless two days before, took four, including top scorer Ash Gardner (74).
Australia were all out in 49 overs for just a run fewer than they made in the second game, but reached by a contrasting route, one that left New Zealand feeling much more positive. Hope, rather than being expunged by a late charge, was revived as the expected target diminished in the last hour of the innings.
In reply, Suzie Bates top scored with 53, but a more substantial contribution was needed from the top order if New Zealand were to get anywhere close. The RA Vance Pessimists declared it over when Sophie Devine’s misjudgement caused Melie Kerr to be run out. We were impressed by the debut performance of Otago’s Bella James, who got the innings off to a brisk start in both games.
It is fitting that the new honours board at the Basin, recording the results of all international games played there, includes women’s matches, but disappointing that no space has been left for additions to the test match list. South Africa are now playing tests regularly and the cricket community here in New Zealand are downcast that the national body does not want to emulate them. Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine both deserve a test debut in the autumn of their careers.
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