The White Ferns failed to build on a strong start in the middle over of the eighth cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games. Thankfully, Lea Tahuhu’s late runs helped them reach a competitive total that Sri Lanka’s reply fell far short of, and New Zealand, with back-to-back victories, has joined England in moving on to the knockout rounds with a 45 runs victorious win.

The opening pair of Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates once again gave New Zealand a bright start, and reasonably good damage from both ends had New Zealand end powerplay overs on a healthy 41-0. New Zealand, having won the toss and chosen to bat first, almost followed the script as intended. After the powerplay, Inoka Ranaweera came on and made an immediate impact by firing Sophie Devine on 24. (23).

At the midway point, New Zealand had a score of 64-2 thanks to Inoka’s quick dismissal of Amelia Kerr in her second over while she was on 2nd. Sugandika Kumari’s bowling ultimately gave New Zealand a nice 11 run over, but Oshadi Ranasinghe then came back into the game and had a double strike, getting rid of Maddy Green and Suzie Bates in the same over on scores of 9(8) and 34(32), respectively. As Kavisha Dilhari struck, Hayley Jensen also left early on 3(3), dropping New Zealand to 98-5 at the end of 15.

Lea Tahuhu came to the rescue for the Kiwis just in time, with an immediate 8-ball-20 that enabled New Zealand to record a competitive 147 on the board. Tahuhu and Rowe both went unbeaten with scores of 20(8) and 4(3), respectively. Inoka Ranaweera led Sri Lanka with three wickets, followed by Oshadi Ranasinghe with two and Kavisha Dilhari with one.

Chasing 147 in reply, Sri Lanka got off to the worst possible start when they lost captain Chamari Athapaththu on a four-ball duck off Hayley Jensen’s delivery. Sri Lanka hit their first boundary in the fifth over, but Rowe struck for New Zealand in the following over, dismissing Vishmi Gunaratne for 3 (9), and Lea Tahuhu successfully finished the powerplay overs with Sri Lanka’s score at 18-2.

Nilakshi de Silva appeared to hold an end, but wickets kept falling on the other side. Rosemary struck Harshitha Madavi on 5(8) in her first over, then Eden Carson knocked Kavisha Dilhari lbw on 4(5) in her first over, bringing Sri Lanka to 35-5 at the midway point. Before Carson struck again and dismissed Ama Kanchana on 8 runs, the pair of Ama Kanchana and de Silva had amassed a small amount of runs, including a 12-run over (11).

Oshadi Ranasinghe and Sugandika Kumari finished Sri Lanka’s innings on 102-8, falling 45 runs short of the necessary total. Hayley Jensen led New Zealand in wickets with three, followed by Eden Carson with a pair, Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair, and Amelia Kerr with one each.