Australia Women vs New Zealand Women, 10th Match, Group A

Will Suzie stop the Aussies?

 T20 World Cup 2016

The White Ferns’ Suzie Bates has shown remarkable appetite to plunder runs off the Australian bowling and this factor will come into play when the Tasman rivals, New Zealand and three-time champion Australia will lock horns in a pulsating Group A match of the ICC World Twenty20 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground here on Monday.

The two wonderful sides that have kept the women’s cricket flag flying have had a brush with each other 31 times and the Australian team, known by the moniker Southern Cross, has gone down 16 times, mainly because of Bates’s consistent display in nine matches in the last seven years.

Bates’s 30 plus match-winning scores have been 38, 41 not out, 48, 33, 40 not out, 52, 67, 33 and 54 in the recent New Zealand wins against Australia in Wellington in February-March.

She has a high average of 56.57 and a strike-rate of 110.31 and that’s the reason Australia fears and recognises its rival captain as a special cricketer who can steal the thunder.

Bates has played 80 Twenty20 games and figured in 45 wins, fifteen against Australia.

After a long work-out at VCA’s civil lines ground, Australian Megan Schutt said: “Suzie is in pretty good form at the moment.

“She always plays well against us. She steps up a bit more against us. But we have our plans individually.’’

The White Ferns arrived here after two clear cut wins against Sri Lanka and Ireland, but after a 12 hour air-travel from Mohali (Chandigarh) to Nagpur on Saturday.

The Australian team has been in the city for four days and it beat South Africa by six wickets, thanks to a lovely cameo by captain Meg. She was absent at the training session in order to recover from a gastro-related illness.

Teams:

New Zealand Women (From): Suzie Bates(c), Rachel Priest(w), Sophie Devine, Sara McGlashan, Amy Satterthwaite, Katey Martin, Katie Perkins, Leigh Kasperek, Erin Bermingham, Lea Tahuhu, Morna Nielsen, Anna Peterson, Hannah Rowe, Thamsyn Newton, Felicity Leydon-Davis

Australia Women (From): Elyse Villani, Alyssa Healy(w), Ellyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning(c), Erin Osborne, Megan Schutt, Rene Farrell, Kristen Beams, Lauren Cheatle, Nicola Carey, Beth Mooney, Holly Ferling, Sarah Coyte