New Zealand Women 181 for 2 (Bates 93*, Green 59*, Alam 2-32) beat Bangladesh Women 180 for 8 (Sultana 73, Jess Kerr 4-23) by eight wickets
There would be no wickets thereafter, though, as Bates and Green steered New Zealand home with an unbroken stand of 131 off just 134 balls. Bates finished unbeaten on 93 off 91 balls, with 12 fours, and Green on 59 off 70, with five fours.
Having chosen to bat, Bangladesh got off to a poor start, scoring just 10 runs in the first six overs and losing two wickets, both to Jess Kerr’s medium-pace. Bangladesh recovered via a 64-run third-wicket stand between Sharmin Akhter and Sultana, but the runs came at under 3.5 an over. Sultana then put on 55 with Lata Mondal and 33 with Rumana Ahmed, but the pace of scoring remained sedate.
Having scored hit just one four while scoring 43 off her first 105 balls, Sultana managed to accelerate somewhat, hitting three fours and a six while picking up 30 off her next 27 balls before being run-out for a career-best 73. Jess Kerr returned to the attack to bowl the 48th and 50th overs of Bangladesh’s innings, and picked up two more wickets to finish with a career-best 4 for 23.
“She was brilliant and and her nature of always hitting the stumps, every delivery she bowls is hitting the wickets with the ball swinging in and we try to swing the ball a lot early on but that doesn’t necessarily make the batters play,” Bates said while praising Jess Kerr. “So she is really effective by bringing the ball back in and she’s really tough to face as a right-hand batter and I’m glad she’s on my team. Brilliant day with the ball and set the game up for us.”