With Wyatt’s 76, England Women’s registered their highest T20I total against New Zealand Women. England achieved this massive record during the 1st T20I of the New Zealand Women Tour of England 2024 in Southampton.
During the New Zealand Women’s Tour of England 2024, 3 ODI and 5 T20Is were scheduled to be played between June 26 and July 17. Hosts already won the 3-match ODI series by 3-0 and kick-started their T20I campaign in a positive note.
After losing the 3-match ODI series without even registering a victory, the White Ferns are expected to make a bounce back in the T20I series. But their bowling performance in the 1st T20I was not up to the mark.
England Women’s had an upper hand since the beginning of the game. Sophie Devine and Co. continued their struggle in bowling in the T20I series also and let the hosts score 197 runs for three wickets loss at the end of the first inning.
In the first T20I, New Zealand won the toss and decided to bowl first where Danielle Wyatt and Maia Bouchier opened the batting attack. The duo kickstarted the inning in an expressive manner and added 61 runs for the first wicket.
Lea Tahuhu made the first breakthrough by dismissing Maia Bouchier for 32 in the middle of the eighth over. Notably, Maia Bouchier has been named in the ICC women’s Player of the Month nominees for July 2024.
Following her dismissal, Nat Sciver-Brunt joined hands with Wyatt and added 82 runs for the second wicket. This time, Eden Carson made the necessary breakthrough by dismissing Nat Sciver-Brunt for 47 runs and snatched her fifty with just three runs needed.
Though England Women’s lost a couple of wickets, Danielle Wyatt on the other end made a decent stand, secured her half-century and scored past 70 runs. While Danielle Wyatt was seen in a rhythm, Lea Tahuhu in the 18th over dismissed her for 76 and scattered England’s dream of scoring big.
Lea Tahuhu ended her bowling inning with a figure of 2 for 33 in four overs and remained team’s highest wicket-taker for the match. Freya Kemp and captain Heather Knight have been handed the responsibilities of pushing the team’s score in the death overs.
Without much contribution from the duo, England Women’s ended up scoring 197 runs for 3 wickets loss at the end of 20 overs.
While chasing, New Zealand Women made a decent start by scoring 45 runs in the first powerplay. Though New Zealand scored a decent run in the powerplay, Georgia Plimmer’s unwanted run-out dismissal at the end of the second over gave an advantage to the hosts.
She does it all! 👏
Incredible work in the ring from Nat Sciver-Brunt 🎯
Live clips 👉 https://t.co/vnRR9WRryk#EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/O2brV0olVM
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 6, 2024
With a triple wickets haul in the 10th over, Sarah Glenn switched the entire game flow towards England’s side.
