New Zealand captain Sophie Devine invited Australia to bat after winning the toss at Pearl on Saturday (February 11). Batting first, wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy’s half-century and captain Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry’s two forties put up a challenging score of 173 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. In response, to Ashleigh Gardner’s career-best bowling, New Zealand was bowled out for just 76 runs. The tournament record of 97 runs was won by the five-time champions. Despite losing the wicket of Beth Mooney at the beginning of the day, Healy and Lanning built the foundation of big runs for Australia. Healy scored 55 runs off 38 balls. He had 9 fours in his innings. Lanning scored 41 runs off 33 balls with 7 fours. After the departure of these two, no one else could score a big run except Elise Perry. Perry scored 40 runs off just 22 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes. Amelia Carr took 3 wickets for 23 runs for New Zealand. Lia Tahu also took 3 wickets with 37 runs. Jess Carr and Hayley Jensen took 1 wicket each.

In response, New Zealand came down to bat under Gardner’s cannon. Amelia Carr scored 21 runs off 30 balls. Apart from him, only two others have reached double-digit runs. Bernadine Bezuidenhou scored 14 runs and Jess Carr scored 10 runs. In the end, New Zealand was all out for just 76 runs. Gardner took a career-best 5 wickets for just 12 runs in 3 overs against the Tasman Sea neighbors. Megan Scott took 2 wickets. Darcy Brown and Elise Perry took 1 wicket each.

Meanwhile, in another game of the day, England defeated West Indies by 7 wickets with 33 balls in hand. On this day, West Indies won the toss and batted first, scoring 42 from 32 balls by Hayley Mathews and 34 runs from Shemain Campbell’s 37 balls. Sophie Ecclestone took 3 wickets for 23 runs for England. Besides, Sciver-Brant and Sarah Glenn took one wicket each. In reply, Sophia Dunkley stormed in at the start. He scored 34 runs off 18 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. Danny Watt scored 11 runs and Alice Capsey scored 13 runs. The pair of Nat Sciver-Brant and captain Heather Knight gave England a big win in the fourth pair. Nat Skiver scored 40 runs off 30 balls. His innings included 6 fours as well as 1 six. Heather Knight scored 32 runs off 4 fours and 1 six off 22 balls. Henry took 2 wickets for 30 runs for West Indies. Affy Fletcher took the remaining wicket.