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England achieved a straightforward win against New Zealand at Hove on Monday, bowling the visitors out for 80 before chasing down the runs with 37 balls to spare to secure the series 2-1.
The win was set up by a catastrophic batting collapse from New Zealand, who sunk to 33 for six in the first nine overs. A Thomas Becket-esque miracle had saved them at Canterbury, but a second one was unlikely to materialise, especially as this time the in-form Sophie Devine was dismissed for a duck.
The win came in the absence of England’s key strike bowler Lauren Bell, rested in anticipation of a big workload over the coming weeks. Dani Gibson stepped up to the mark with figures of three for 14, including the big scalps of Devine and Melie Kerr in the same over.
Gibson said that her new bowling action, remodelled to alleviate the stress on her back, was working well: “I feel like I’ve been hitting the deck pretty hard in all three games. We wanted to perform today under pressure, and we’ve done that.”
Kerr once again chipped up an easy catch on the ring and her form going into the World Cup must now register as something of a concern after scores of one, eight and nought in the series.
The England captain, Charlie Dean, also shouldered some of the bowling load, in the powerplay and at the death, picking up three wickets. Her astute use of DRS again came in handy: she chose to send a not-out lbw against Brooke Halliday upstairs and reviews showed the ball was drifting on to leg stump.
Dean told Sky Sports: “We learned from the Canterbury game about being ruthless. We did that today.”
With such a low target England could afford to be sensible in the chase and wickets fell only whenever they deviated from that strategy: Capsey was trapped lbw by Nensi Patel and Sophia Dunkley was caught at mid-on trying to loft the ball down the ground.
New Zealand could have made further inroads had Halliday clung on to a tricky catch in the deep when Heather Knight was still in single figures. Instead, a painstaking partnership for the third wicket between Knight and Maia Bouchier of 35 from 39 balls took England within 10 runs of their target. Knight reverse-swept Melie Kerr to backward point leaving Freya Kemp to finish things off.
Having chosen to bat first in scorching sunshine, New Zealand had placed their hopes for a better start in a different opening combination: Georgia Plimmer was dropped on the back of making consecutive golden ducks, while Suzie Bates was brought back to her traditional place at the top of the order.
But the Bates experiment failed to pay off, with the Kiwi veteran botching a reverse sweep against the ever-reliable line of Linsey Smith; three overs later Izzy Gaze followed suit. Their head coach, Ben Sawyer, admitted after the match that it leaves the reigning world champions with something of a dilemma as they head into the World Cup: who exactly is going to open the batting?
England now move on to face a new opponent, India, in another three-match T20 series beginning at Chelmsford on Thursday.
