Suzie Bates regrets losing key wickets after a crucial start against England

England won the triangular series after beating New Zealand in the final.

Suzie Bates | Source ICC

New Zealand women captain, Suzie Bates regrets losing key wickets after having a good start in the final of the triangular series cost them the match while playing against England in the final. Suzie feels losing key wickets at a crucial stage of the match took the game away from New Zealand with England winning off in a style by 7 wickets.

“It's hard to believe that we lost,” said Bates, who scored a 27-ball 31. “We thought we were prepared really well for this game and obviously been disappointing in the last two (games).” 

New Zealand opening pair scored 55 runs for the first wicket after a good bowling effort from England restricted them to 137/9. “We got off to a really good start in the final with the top of the order, but losing key wickets once we got off to that good start and to keep losing wickets really allowed England to get on top and reduce us to that score, and on that wicket was going to be difficult to defend,” Bates said.

Suzie Bates also admitted that New Zealand's bowling was not up to the mark throughout the tournament. She hopes for a better performance against England in the bilateral series with England.

“I don't think we bowled as well as we could have in the series,” Bates added. “We've been able to create pressure from one end at times, but we know we want some bowling partnerships. So going into this one-day series, I guess to withhold that pressure for a longer stint is what we know we need to do.”

“We have a lot of depth. Amy Satterthwaite is one of our best players. Katey Martin in the middle as well and Maddy Green has really impressed,” said Bates. “So in this series, you can say that we were relying on Sophie to score a lot of runs and she got a great opportunity to bat at the top of the order.

“She is certainly one of the most destructive batters in the world. If she is there for longer than 10 overs, then that's certainly going to bring success to us.”

 “As a group, we've been world beaters against teams probably not like England. We have been pretty successful against Australia in Twenty20 cricket. But it (the tournament) does require us to put up team performances and that's what we've been looking forward to.

“The good thing is we've had some really good signs from some of our young players and they have been tested against one of the best teams in the world. Amelia Kerr fought really well. Then Jess Watkins’ performance, even Haley Jensen, she's been a real key for us.”

(Inputs from ICC)

 
 

By Kunal Kataria - 02 Jul, 2018

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