England vs New Zealand: Women’s World Cup – LIVE! , Play

10th over: New Zealand 52-0 (Suzy Bates 14, Sophie Devine 30)

Looks like Devine has now seen enough cross to put a shot on him and he cuts a beautifully for four, completing a 50-run partnership. Devine is clearly batting outside her crease as well and now the umpire comes to talk to her about it. It’s getting pretty weird now. The potential for umpires to award penalty runs if they consider this to be an ongoing problem is something to keep in mind.

9th over: New Zealand 48-0 (Suzy Bates 14, Sophie Devine 26)

And one more change in the bowling – perhaps Knight has admitted that an angry Brunt can’t fit his line and length right now. Instead we have Net Sciver in her place and she starts well and then bowls a short ball, which Devine takes to third, but there’s a fielder set up pretty good and she’s limited to one. These new bowlers have successfully slowed down New Zealand’s batsmen, bringing down the run rate to below six.

8th over: New Zealand 45-0 (Suzy Bates 13, Sophie Devine 24)

We have the first bowling change with Kate Cross in place of Shrubsole. She gets her line and length right and Devine can only defend her for the first two balls. She steals a quick run on third – doesn’t look like anything, it’s a similar defensive shot, but a few quick runs see her home and take Bates on strike. Bates takes a slight swing on a ball, but Cross does a good job and gets it to him. Now the umpire comes to talk with Bates and tells him that he is batting too far from his crease, which is an interesting point. Anyone remember if this happened before?

7th over: New Zealand 44-0 (Suzy Bates 13, Sophie Devine 23)

Brunt to Bates now and Bates doesn’t seem to be in his groove just yet, but he’s quite comfortable playing Devine’s supporting role for now. Brunt begins to press the dot ball on him and Devine gives him some reassurance, which works as the next ball is bowled short of length by Brunt and Bates pulls it firmly to the boundary for four. It’s a good over from Brunt, just four of it, but she doesn’t look happy at all.

6th over: New Zealand 40-0 (Suzy Bates 9, Sophie Devine 23)

Shrubsole continues and Bates takes a ball to contemplate her approach and then looks for one of those Eden Park pockets – she can’t make it to the boundary, but some good running gets them three. Shrubsole puts a wide down the leg side, but Devine comes out to meet her, picks it up early and sweeps it for four. She follows him with a similar shot, placing it behind the square toward one pocket and picking up two others.

5th over: New Zealand 31-0 (Suzy Bates 6, Sophie Devine 17)

The rain is back, but the teams are still playing. The ground staff is ready at the boundary with cover ready so we can stop at any moment, but it’s good to see them out there for now. Brunt continues his spell and Devine takes another easy two to start the over. Brunt then manages to do five points in a row, which is a good sign that she is starting to find her line and length. This is England’s best over ever – just two of it.

4th over: New Zealand 29-0 (Suzy Bates 6, Sophie Devine 15)

Devine and Bates look absolutely troubled at the moment, they are running at a good clip and don’t feel it necessary to play early, feeling for the ground and the bowlers. Devine finds one of those strange pockets of the field and helps the speedy outfield ball to the rope – she’s looking dangerous early on.

3rd over: New Zealand 23-0 (Suzy Bates 5, Sophie Devine 10)

Devine takes a quick single, Bates gets a chance for a boundary at the end – his strike rate looks bad but he’s faced a lot of bad England deliveries resulting in extras, so he’s played his part so far Is. New Zealand certainly aren’t going to let any dot ball pressure build up on them early on, whenever they get the chance they fall and run and deftly swing the ball around the field for another two.

2nd over: New Zealand 17-0 (Suzy Bates 1, Sophie Devine 9)

Shrubsole opens from the other end and wonders! She starts off with a wide. He gets his line on the next ball, but then has a pretty straight and Bates gets some leg byes – a fine defense by Ecclestone on the boundary prevents it from being a four. Shrubsole added another wide to his tally in the middle of the over and Heather Knight looks a bit disappointed that her senior bowlers are unable to find their line early in the match. Devine drives a through cover for three – it almost reaches the boundary but some good fielding from Beaumont and Dunkley cuts it. Another good over for New Zealand.

1st over: New Zealand 9-0 (Suzy Bates 1, Sophie Devine 6)

Here we go in this important match for both the teams. Devine and Bates got us off to a start, while Katherine Brunt took the new ball for England, as we’ve become accustomed to. He has one slip to start against Bates. Well, in a continuation from yesterday, we start with a detailed. Ellyse Perry struggled with her line yesterday, bowling six wides in her first over. But Brunt quickly fixes his line with a lbw appeal on the next ball, but it’s too much. She follows it up with another wide and then drops her run up on the retry. Strong winds are blowing at Eden Park and the bowlers will have to adjust fast. Bates finally finds what she can hit and is off the mark with a single. Devine takes a ball to get her eye in and then she takes one to square leg to get off the mark, followed by a beautiful cut for four.

Heather Knight takes a leaf out of Meg Lanning’s book and chooses to chase after seeing how well Australia were able to do yesterday. Sophie Devine is also pleased with the result, as she was planning to bat first. Both the teams are unchanged from their previous matches.

In case you missed the action at Eden Park yesterday, you can catch up on our OBO from Australia vs India. It had a lot of swings of pace and that will tell you a lot about what a good batting wicket it is in Auckland. India were good enough to get the match into the final over, but Beth Mooney was calm under the pressure of getting the job done in three balls. There are some deep pockets in the area and Australia were able to take advantage of those strange little spaces to drive a lot of twos – something that both NZ and England would have noted for today’s game.

The toss has been delayed due to some rain in Auckland, but there will be no delay in the first ball at this stage. The wind is looking a bit strong at Eden Park but there is some blue skies and sunshine so hopefully we don’t miss any overs.