I always enjoy seeing the nation's top sportswomen show their skills and what better than to have this take place a 20 minute walk from home, in an uncrowded but beautiful stadium, and on a sunny, warm day.
The last time I watched these two sides play a T20 was was in Taunton, UK a couple of years ago.
Jodie Fields is the Stars skipper and Suzie Bates is skippering the Ferns.
The fact that Jodie is back in the side is great as she suffered an awful injury while batting and it has taken a long and courageous recovery to make it back to the top. Here you can see a short video about Jodie and her recovery
The Southern Stars won the toss and Jodie decided to send the White Ferns into bat first.
Final preparation at the ground
Jodie Fields warms up
White Ferns during their warmup
Ready for the off
The White Ferns come on for the opening ceremony.
Jodie leads the Southern Stars on
The anthems take place. There was an embarrassing moment for the organisers when the NZ anthem ended prematurely. It sounded like they were playing a vinyl record of the anthem and somebody knocked the needle off the gramophone mid song. Some of the players looked aghast.
The Southern Stars take to the field
Ferns opening batswomen Suzie Bates and Frances Mackay come on to get the match underway
First ball of the tournament
Jodie in action
Ellyse Perry got wickets in her second spell of bowling having struggled earlier
Jessica Jonassen had a great debut getting 2 wickets for 28 runs from her 4 overs
The final score for NZ was 145 (146 on the scoreboard, but this was subsequently amended). The scoreboard shows that NZ suffered a mini collapse at 85 runs on the board. However Katie Perkins and Elizabeth Perry managed a good recovery to post a decent total on the board. Credit must go to Suzie Bates 33 and Frances Mackay 31 who got the Ferns off to a very good start.
During the innings there was the unusual event of E.Perry bowling to E.Perry
The Southern Stars innings gets underway with Leah Poulton and Meg Lanning opening.
Sian Ruck bowls to Leah Poulton. Poulton got out cheaply when caught at 5 runs scored
Alyssa Healy also had a bad day when she was LBW for 1 run scored
Jess Cameron was doing her usual job of holding the innings together and building a big score for the Stars
A red light indicates that a 3rd umpire review means another wicket gone ....
It was Meg Lanning who had to go, having been runout
Alex Blackwell and Jess Cameron kept building the score and it was beginning to look like they would easily make the required total
A mini collapse with 121 runs on the board saw the wickets of Blackwell and Cameron fall. Suddenly it was 'game on' again
Sarah Coyte got valuable runs as the overs were running out
A 4 from the second to last ball saw the Southern Stars over the line. It had been a close match and I enjoyed it
The final scoreboard with the Australian women winning with 148 runs and by 4 wickets
Southern Stars debrief after a good outcome for them
Jess Cameron scored an excellent 59 and was a well deserved Player Of the Match. Does that make her a POM ?
Looking forward to the next match on Saturday now.
Peewit
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