Secret weapon Ruck swings it for New Zealand as Australia crumbles
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Unheralded Sian Ruck and skipper Aimee Watkins ripped the heart out of Australia’s challenge at Taunton on Friday as New Zealand stole centre stage at the ICC Women’s Twenty20 2009 tournament.
Ruck, who only made her debut at the start of the month, removed the top three Australia batters on her way to figures of 3-12 before Watkins hammered 73 not out off 51 deliveries to see the ICC Women’s World Cup finalists home by nine wickets.
Suzie Bates made 41 at a run-a-ball in an unbroken stand of 118 for the second wicket as the White Ferns overhauled Australia’s 123-8 with 22 balls to spare.
Australia, opting to bat first, never looked in contention after being reduced to 51-6 shortly after the halfway stage.
“To be only chasing 120 on a fantastic deck and outfield made it a lot easier,” said Watkins.
“Sian’s a bit of a hidden weapon for us. Nobody’s really seen her before.
“We thought that the Aussies would look to attack her which they did and fortunately that worked in our favour.
“She’s worked really hard on her game and on her fitness. She’s 100 times the bowler that she was this time last year.”
The game was expected to be a close affair.
Instead, Ruck, bowling beautiful medium-paced in-swing, tore through the Australian top order.
She removed Leah Poulton and Lauren Ebsary in her first over, Poulton hitting recklessly across the line and Ebsary falling lbw.
Ruck then dismissed the dangerous Shelley Nitschke, beautifully taken by wicketkeeper Rachel Priest standing up, in her third over to make it 25-3 as the procession continued.
Sara McGlashan then threw out Jodie Fields with a direct hit from extra cover, Karen Rolton, tucked up, edged into her stumps and then Priest produced a lightning piece of glove work to stump Jessica Cameron off Lucy Doolan’s off spin.
“We lost four wickets for not too many it’s always pretty tough to recover from something like that,” said Rolton. “Out here, against a good team, we probably needed 150 or 160.”
It was left to Lisa Sthalekar, the world’s top all-rounder, to save face with a series of lofted off-drives on her way to 46 off 36 balls.
Watkins, however, trumped that. Coming in at three after Doolan was run out cheaply, she produced a controlled exhibition of savagery, 54 of her runs coming in boundaries.
There was a leg-side six off Nitschke’s slow left arm in the third over, followed by a string of slashing square drives.
Fatally, she was dropped on the boundary by Alex Blackwell on 16. She needed no further invitation, breaking the Australians’ resistance with three consecutive boundaries off medium-pacer Sarah Andrews.
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The ICC World Twenty20 2009 involves 12 of the top men’s teams and the top eight women’s line-ups playing at four venues – Lord’s, The Oval, Trent Bridge and Taunton – in the pinnacle of international cricketing action.
The defending men’s champion is India, which beat Pakistan in the final of the inaugural event, in South Africa in 2007. This is the first staging of the women’s tournament.
A limited number of tickets are still available for the ICC World Twenty20 2009. Further details can be found at:https://eticketing.co.uk/iccwt20