That concludes the Guardian’s live coverage of the second T20 international between Australia and New Zealand. The third and final match of this series will be played at Wellington Regional Oval on Wednesday starting at 2.45pm local/12.45pm AEDT.
Until then, thanks for your company and enjoy your Sunday night!
Australia have continued their dominance of New Zealand with a thumping 82-run win in Tauranga to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Twenty20 series.
After destroying the world champion White Ferns by eight wickets on Friday in Auckland, Australia picked up where they left off in the New Zealand capital.
Star opener Beth Mooney fired again to propel Australia to a whopping 3-204, smashing 70 from 42 balls, backing her a splendid unbeaten 75 two days ago in a player-of-the-match performance in her 200th international.
To win, New Zealand would have needed to pull off the second-biggest successful run chase in women’s T20 history. But their innings never got going, losing captain Suzie Bates in the second over as they slumped to 4-45.
After hitting an unbeaten 23 to help Australia power past 200, Annabel Sutherland also produced with the ball, knocking over opener Georgia Plimmer, as well as star veteran Sophie Devine for a first-ball duck.
She was only used for 2.1 overs, but Sutherland finished with career-best figures of 4-8 in an outstanding all-round performance from the reigning Belinda Clark Award winner.
Star allrounder Amelia Kerr was a lone hand for New Zealand with the bat, hitting 40 before falling to star Australia legspinner Alana King (3-27), who was left out of the team for the first T20, despite being player of the series in the Ashes whitewash this year.
Mooney, the fill-in wicketkeeper as Alyssa Healy recovers at home, combined for a 57-run opening stand with Georgia Voll (36) to again stun the White Ferns with an early onslaught. Kerr (1-27) was the pick of New Zealand’s bowlers, but the hosts have only managed five wickets across the first two games of the series.
- Australian Associated Press
Updated
