Australia beat NZ by five runs

PERTH: New Zealand captain Amy Satterthwaite compiled a measured 92 in a chase of 242, but Jess Jonassen’s expertise with the ball cut New Zealand short as Australia won the first ICC Women’s Championship ODI by five runs.

New Zealand’s bowlers did well to bowl Australia out for 241 in Perth on Friday despite Rachael Haynes’s fifty. Satterthwaite and Katie Perkins then seemed to put New Zealand in control with a 99-run stand for the fourth wicket, but Jonassen triggered a collapse as the visitors slipped from 188-4 to 235-9.

New Zealand’s chase was off to a rickety start, with openers Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates falling cheaply. Devine, playing her 100th ODI, was done in by Ellyse Perry’s extra bounce, as she cut one straight to point. Bates was pinned in front by Megan Schutt.

Perry’s dismissal of Lauren Down was a swing bowler’s dream. She set her up with two big away-swingers before bowling an in-dipper to have her off-stump rattled.— icc-cricket.com