New Zealand v England: Amy Jones guides vacationers to victory in first ODI

Amy Jones hit an excellent unbeaten 92 to guide England to a four-wicket win over New Zealand within the first one-day worldwide.

Jones took the lead, taking part in a wonderfully paced counter-attacking innings, with Dean preserving her cool in a helpful supporting knock of 42 as England received over the road with 8.4 overs to spare.

Dean had earlier taken three wickets to develop into the quickest girl to 50 ODI scalps in solely her twenty sixth recreation.

The off-spinner made the preliminary breakthrough after a gap partnership of 90 between Suzie Bates and Bernadine Bezuidenhout.

Bates was dropped twice within the first seven balls of the match and was additionally lucky to flee lbw and stumping shouts which might have been overturned had they been reviewed.

She made probably the most of that success to hit her thirty fourth ODI fifty however was stumped subsequent ball because the White Ferns subsided to 207 all out.

That seemed eminently chaseable on the midway level however England shortly discovered themselves in bother and, when Danni Wyatt was bowled by Amelia Kerr within the seventeenth over, the guests have been six down and going through defeat.

However Jones and Dean went about rectifying the scenario to present Heather Knight’s facet a 1-0 sequence lead because the groups head to Hamilton for the second ODI, starting at 23:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Cross shines as England overcome early drops

In her first worldwide white-ball recreation since September, Kate Cross was England’s standout bowler on the Basin Reserve.

The seamer ought to have had a wicket together with her second ball when Bates chipped to mid-on, just for Sophie Ecclestone to dive over the ball.

When Bates was dropped once more off Lauren Bell to start out the subsequent over and survived after England opted to not take an lbw evaluate quickly after, frustration may have begun to creep in for the guests.

However Cross continued to calmly probe away, getting the ball to form away properly whereas additionally profiting from a green-tinged floor to nibble the ball round off the seam.

Regardless of beating the bat numerous instances, she needed to wait till her second spell for her reward as New Zealand’s openers battled via in opposition to the brand new ball.

Bates and Bezuidenhout had been tied down by the England quicks and, though the runs got here simpler with the introduction of spin, it additionally proved their downfall as Dean made the breakthrough and Ecclestone shortly took the second New Zealand wicket.

New Zealand regrouped via Amelia Kerr, captaining the facet for the primary time in ODIs, and Georgia Plimmer.

Nonetheless, Cross returned to take away them each lbw in an distinctive spell that sparked a New Zealand collapse of eight wickets for 68 runs.

Even after a collapse of their very own, the efforts of Jones and Dean ensured the work of England’s bowlers didn’t go to waste.

‘Jones and Dean give lesson for us all’ – response

Participant of the match Amy Jones on TNT Sports activities: “I was just trying to keep it as simple as possible and focus on one ball at a time. It sounds simple but I knew that if I did that then Deano and I would build a good partnership.

“I attempted to be as optimistic as doable and, when the ball was in my areas, again myself. Then respect the great balls once they bowled in good areas as properly.

“I’ve done a bit of work on mindset going into run-chases. It’s an area I’ve felt I could do better in so I’m pleased that that work has paid off today.”

England captain Heather Knight: “I felt like we were in a really good position [at the halfway stage]. The seamers, in particular, bowled really well.

“The way in which [Jones and Dean] soaked up stress to construct a partnership after which put the stress again on the Kiwis was a lesson for us all.”

New Zealand captain Amelia Kerr: “Kate Cross bowled very properly on that wicket. We did not actually have any solutions to their adjustments of tempo and variation.

“At the start I thought we were in a position to get 250-plus, but then you look at the bowling side of things and one more wicket and maybe we could have defended 200.”