Ecclestone, Capsey star as England hold off New Zealand for 3-0 lead

England 142 for 4 (Capsey 67*, Dunkley 35) beat New Zealand 141 for 8 (Devine 58*, Bates 38, Ecclestone 4-25) by six wickets

England mixed it up, put it in a test tube, found themselves under pressure and still came out with a win and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their T20I series against New Zealand.

Devine intervention

With Georgia Plimmer having fallen for a first-ball duck in the opening over, the spectre of New Zealand’s batting woes loomed large again and, at 63 for 3, it fell to Devine and Brooke Halliday to steady them. Devine received a life on 4 when Charlie Dean couldn’t hold a sharp return catch before Halliday spooned a Glenn delivery straight to Nat Sciver-Brunt at long-on. Devine broke a boundary drought lasting 5.4 overs when she struck Dean for two fours in four balls, swung through square leg and thundered through long-on, but as the wickets continued to fall, Devine would have to unleash if they were to turn 100 for 6 into a defendable total.

Kemp made it 106 for 7 with a perfect yorker to remove Hannah Rowe but Devine slammed the first six of the match over long-on two balls later then slog-swept Ecclestone for an even bigger one over deep square leg and drove the next ball down the ground for four. Devine brought up her fifty with the first of three fours in a row off Dani Gibson, smashed down the ground, before slashing past short third and ending the innings with a heave through square leg to walk off with her first half-century of the tour.

Ecclestone’s incisions

Ecclestone came into the attack and struck with her second ball, Bates chipping straight to Sciver-Brunt at mid-off for a 27-ball 38. Kerr swung her bat in anguish after she was beaten a beauty three balls later, a flighted delivery that dipped then gripped off the pitch and sailed past the inside edge onto the top of middle stump. When Ecclestone splattered Izzy Gaze’s off stump with her arm ball, New Zealand were in all sorts of trouble. That’s when Devine shifted gears but Ecclestone claimed her fourth when Leigh Kasperek tried to match her captain’s hitting and heaved across the line, only to miss and see her middle stump rattled. It was the last ball of Ecclestone’s allocation, giving her 4 for 25, her second four-wicket haul in T20Is and bettered only by the 4 for 18 she took against New Zealand at Taunton in 2018.

“What-if?” planning

England made sweeping changes in a piece of “what-if?” planning ahead of the T20 World Cup, as it was described at the toss by Sciver-Brunt, standing in as captain for Heather Knight, who sat out alongside Danni Wyatt and Lauren Bell. That made way at the top of the order for Dunkley to play her first T20I since March. Kemp returned after her unbeaten 26 and 1 for 30 playing again as an allrounder in the opening T20I in Southampton while making her comeback from a back injury. Bell made way for fellow seamer Lauren Filer in the other change, which was in keeping with a theme Knight painted ahead of the T20I series where she said England would look to try different combinations and tactics with a view to needing to adapt to changing conditions in Bangladesh.

Having been dropped after England’s tour of New Zealand earlier this year, Dunkley scored 15 in her only other appearance of this visit by the White Ferns, in the third ODI in Bristol. Here she had another chance to show what she could do ahead of the T20 World Cup and the spotlight intensified here when Maia Bouchier fell on the first ball of the run-chase, pinned lbw by Rowe. In Rowe’s next over, Dunkley powered a big six over long-off, then helped herself to three fours – and 15 runs in all – off Devine’s second over, which was the last of the powerplay and ended with England comfortable on 50 for 1. But when left-arm spinner Jonas entered the attack, she had two wickets in two balls, Dunkley cramped by a full ball which drifted in and chopping onto her stumps and Sciver-Brunt to an lbw decision that would have been overturned had she reviewed with ball-tracking showed it was missing leg stump.

Capsey, Kemp get the job done

That left England needing 73 runs in 10 overs and Capsey made the most of her chance when she was pinned on the front pad attempting a reverse sweep off Kasperek and successfully reviewed, the ball shown to be going down the leg side. Amy Jones survived two dropped chances, put down on 11 by Plimmer at long-off and Devine at mid-off on 18 with England needing 28 off 17 balls. Capsey slammed Kerr over long-on for six next ball so that when Jones was run out, the equation was 22 needed from 15.

Yet another chance went begging when Maddy Green failed to hold in the deep and Kemp capitalised, cleverly reversing Kasperek to the boundary through short third and smashing the next ball down the ground to leave England with five to get off the last over. They got there with four balls to spare via a streaky four by Capsey off a Jonas misfield.