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ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 | Australia go top of the table bullying New Zealand into submission

Kingshuk Kusari

Australia are looking leagues above the rest of the competition three games in the tournament after they managed to clinch their third win on a trot in the ICC Women’s World Cup. Playing at Wellington, Australia routed hosts New Zealand like they were nothing, to go top of the table on Sunday, 13 March.

Ellyse Perry was star of show on the day, scoring a brilliant 68 runs to rescue Australia from a precarious start and then returning to pick one wicket from her 5 overs.

A victory of 141 runs after scoring 269 in the first innings sounds like a massive win, and it surely is, but the day did not start like that for the Australians. New Zealand had chosen to bowl first and wanted to use the conditions to take a couple of early wickets. And they did, by picking up three Australian batters at the 16 over mark.

First it was Alyssa Healy who departed at 15 off 31 balls and then Meg Lanning walked off adding just 5 runs to the scoreboard. While their struggle did not last for long, opener Rachel Haynes got served with an absolute beauty by Lea Tahuhu from around the wicket angle, clipping her off stump with an outswinger.

At three-down, Australia needed a big partnership to come back into the game. And that’s when Australia’s deep batting line-up came into play. Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath made important contributions to the scoreboard and made sure that they stabilised Australia with a rebuilding act. Perry was constant among the partnerships with the other two batters and held the innings through as Australia progressed slowly. 

She added 57 off 84 balls alongside Mooney before the latter got played on while trying to dab Amelia Kerr for a single. At that time, Australia were 113/4 in 29/.1 overs having recovered from their debacle of 56/3.

After Mooney’s departure, McGrath started the early aggression, starting to hit at a run-a-ball pace. The pair added 101 off 96 balls with Perry taking her pace up as well, before getting out in the 45th over. But by that time, Perry and McGrath were already brought Australia into a rapid pace of affairs after taking 20 runs off the 41st over.

Perry was dismissed at 68 off 86 balls against an insane catch by Maddy Green at straight on where she ran to her left and grabbed the ball in front of the sightscreen with a full-stretch dive.


With just 5 overs remaining, Ashleigh Gardner played a blizzard innings of 48 of 18 balls which included 4 fours and 4 sixes. Gardner’s innings completely shifted the momentum of the game as Australia managed to put up a respectable total of 269 despite McGrath’s wicket in the 47th over when she was at 57 off 56 balls.


Returning to bowl, Australia reducing them to 35/5 by the 12th over. Lots of factors played key in getting NZ to where they were by that time, but it all started with Ellyse Perry and her cricketing brain. NZ had a decent start scoring 22 runs in the first 4 overs, but Perry decide to come wide of the wicket and push one ball through into Sophie Devine. The NZ batter missed her flicked and got cleaned up by the all-rounder affecting a collapse.

The second bit was the catching. Anyone who has watched NZ in the recent times knows that Amelia Kerr is key to any big batting effort that NZ have. And Australia removed her by a stunning catch in the slip cordon where Mooney threw herself to the right and picked up a stunning low catch after Kerr decide to edge one against an away swinger.

From there it was just a matter of time before NZ folded, and to Australia’s credit they kept at it throughout the innings. They kept their lines tight and either induced LBWs or edges throughout the innings. Only Amy Satterthwaite showed some resistance with her 67-ball 44, but that only stretched the game a little longer, as she saw no support from the other end.

She fell while trying to chip Gardner and found McGrath at extra cover. She was the penultimate wicket to fall in the 29th over and NZ only survived one over after that.

Ellyse Perry was adjudged the man of the match for her rebuilding effort with the bat and affecting the start of the collapse in the NZ innings.

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