On Sunday, March 1, the third T20I match of the Zimbabwe tour of New Zealand saw the hosts winning the series 3-0. The match was a one-sided affair after New Zealand Women defeated Zimbabwe by 10 wickets in Hamilton. New Zealand Women’s bowlers were the highlight of the match taking the first innings by storm.
For Zimbabwe Women the struggle came from the batting lineup. They lost both their openers Kelis Ndhlovu (0 off 8) and Modester Mupachikwa (1 off 7) in three overs. The batters coming in next, however, struggled to start a momentum that resulted in more loss of wickets. The middle-order batters – Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano (0 off 4), Beloved Biza (1 off 2), Chiedza Dhururu (0 off 3), Loreen Tshuma (5 off 14), Christabel Chatonzwa (0 off 7) – all fell cheaply.
The only decent contribution came from Adel Zimunu who scored 20 runs off 23 balls, and Audrey Mazvishaya who remained not out with 20* off 37. Meanwhile, in the lower order, skipper Nomvelo Sibanda added 4 runs off 12 balls, while Tendai Makusha got 3 off 3. The New Zealand Women bowlers restricted Zimbabwe to 64 runs while picking up nine wickets. Nensi Patel picked up three, Jess Kerr took two, while Amelia Kerr and Maddy Green added one each.
For the New Zealand women’s batting line-up, it wasn’t much of a task as they completed the run chase in 5.4 overs. Openers Isabella Gaze 38* runs off 20 and Izzy Sharp 18* runs off 14 chased down the required comfortably. The Zimbabwe women’s bowler failed to get any wickets in the six overs they got.
In both the previous T20Is played, New Zealand won dominantly. In the first T20I match, New Zealand defeated the Zimbabwe Women’s team by 92 runs. Skipper Kerr put up quite the show with her all-rounder brilliance. She ended with a figure of 101 runs with the bat and 2/14 with the ball.
Meanwhile, in the second T20I, New Zealand won by 110 runs. Isabella Gaze (85* runs off 54) and Kerr (82 off 52) secured a massive 162-run partnership in the first innings that set the pressure on the Zimbabwe batters who went all-out at 86.
Both teams move ahead to play the three-match ODI series starting from March 5 to 11, in Dunedin.
