Ten reasons to be cheering for New Zealand’s best at the Mount today
1
1999. It’s been too long since a WHITE FERNS captain has lifted the Rose Bowl. Skipper Suzie Bates was only 12 years old the last time it happened. It's so last millennium seeing Australia win everything. How special would it be to see the WHITE FERNS superstar getting her hands on the trophy today at Bay Oval?
WHITE FERNS preview Rose Bowl ODI 2 at Bay Oval
01 Mar, 2017
2
It’s free, free, FREE! Free to watch online with our livestream with FREE online live commentary too from Radio Sport Extra. That’s so cool. Former WHITE FERNS captain Aimee Watkin (née Mason), Nigel Yalden, former BLACKCAP Erv McSweeney and Tim Roxborogh will be the expert sports nuts calling it for you from the Mount.
3
If you live anywhere near Mt Maunganui, you have free international cricket on your doorstep today. FREE! We said it again. No charge to see two of the world’s top two sides go big with an historic trans-Tasman trophy and let’s face it bragging rights at stake.
4
Nobody’s ever done five in a row but it could, might, maybe just happen today (no jinxes here and feet off the floor already). Amy Satterthwaite and Kumar Sangakarra are the only players in cricket world history to have scored four consecutive ODI centuries so you don’t want to be anywhere but watching if and when Satterthwaite gets a chance to bat today at Bay Oval. It could be totally Amy-azing. (No pressure Amy! Four's good!)
5
Sanga’s watching too. The Sri Lankan rockstar who hit his four ODI 100s in the 2015 World Cup got in touch with Satterthwaite to pass on heartiest congrats. Sangakkara first met Satterthwaite when he spent an hour or so talking with Satterthwaite’s Hobart Hurricanes Women’s BBL team. “I read about Amy's wonderful feat and I was very much impressed at the way she has played,” says Sanga, the fellow left-hander. “I honestly believe that Amy was always capable of feats such as this and she has now found a way to express that with a clinical, repeatable process of execution in the middle.” Wonderful praise. So good.
6
Meg Lanning’s Australians are no pushovers. They are absolutely stinging after having been beaten at home in the T20 series by these WHITE FERNS and now they’re 0-1 down in the Rose Bowl, the format in which they are defending world champions. Last summer they were also 0-1 down at this same ground, but stormed back to lift the Rose Bowl 2-1. They were clearly leaving no stone unturned in a mega-training session on Tuesday. Cue for every Kiwi to send positive vibes for what’s surely to be another hard-fought and exciting match.
Suzie Bates. Australia's nemesis. PHOTOSPORT
7
Superb Suzie Bates is New Zealand’s winningest WHITE FERN. After the thrilling win in Auckland on the weekend, Bates is out in front now with the most One-Day wins as a WHITE FERNS captain. Great credentials alongside coach Haidee Tiffen in the brains trust driving this team!
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Amy Satterthwaite is just 45 runs away from going past all-round legend Tiffen in the ODI career runs department too. On the legends list Satterthwaite has 2874 ODI runs at a decent 37 average, Tiffen 2919, Suzie Bates 3430 at a 40-plus average and Debbie Hockley 4064 so it’s a chance to move into the all-time top three.
9
NZC has put on special FREE buses to get heaps of young female school players in the Bay of Plenty along so they can be personally inspired by witnessing women’s cricket at its best. Very cool. Lucky!
10
The more you support the WHITE FERNS the better they play. FACT. There was a brilliant crowd in Auckland loudly cheering on Satterthwaite, Anna Peterson and the team as they got up for their biggest ODI run chase in WHITE FERNS history the other day so get dancing on those Bay Oval banks for your team to do it again today.
