NZ Women vs ENG Women, 1st ODI at Chester-le-Street, ENG v NZ (W), Jun 26 2024 - Ball by Ball Commentary

A no-show to start the tour for New Zealand. They'll hope to turn things around in Worcester. England might make changes for that game but the approach is likely to remain just as attacking. Join us then to see how that goes. Goodbye for now.

Heather Knight, England captain: Really pleasing. The way we attacked the game was brilliant. We pushed for wickets and bowled them out for a low score on a good pitch. Masterclass by our openers. It was those two feeling their way. The pitch dictated them to do that but they took smart options. Can't get better from an opening-wicket partnership. If you overpitch on that pitch it was lovely, so we had to hit a length and do it harder. Lauren will hope to do that better but is a key player and know she'll bounce back. Filer has improved her accuracy and got Bates with a great ball. (On winning 12 of their 14 previous games) We got brilliant players on the bench as well, building great depth now. Want to keep getting better. We've talked about being smarter as a group, showed that today.

Sophie Devine, NZ captain: Really disappointed. We got a really good start with the bat but England came back. We need to put this behind and come back harder with important series coming up. We've got to identify areas we need to improve but also look at positives, especially Plimmer and Halliday. We know we'll have to score 250-260 for which we were on course but lost wickets. On outfields like this we can score naturally.

Charlie Dean, POTM: Tammy and Maia setting the blueprint of how to go about in ODIs. It was a great team performance. I've been working on my consistency, know my best ball is good so trying to deliver that as much as possible while changing things around. Bowlers ahead of me set things up today. We're lucky to have three good spinners who make the team more often than often.

lunch: "I rather hoped that this match would carry me a little closer to the semi-final later on... Now I will have to endure like 8 hours of no cricket :("

3:09pm That was a shellacking, New Zealand were pretty much never in the game. It's the largest margin of victory for England against New Zealand in terms of balls remaining, informs Mark Butcher on air. The bowlers kept the visitors to a score that was well under par and the openers had a day out. Both Beaumont and Bouchier showed how huge the gulf was between the batting on the two sides, especially against spin. NZ were often stuck in the crease, prodding and nurdling it around. England just hit through the line, hit them out of lengths and played with the field to make the bowling look insipid. The series doesn't carry points in the Women's championship and Knight had said they'll look to experiment. If this is anything to go by, the hosts might be doubling down with just as much flair in four days.

Final over?

"@Dave: it's all about time in the middle for Heather Knight..." scoffs Jamie Dow, "you know, those extra few balls will make all the difference!"

Dave: "What's the point in defending at this stage? Having done all the hard work why not treat it as an opportunity to practice a tight T20 chase? 12 needed from 6." There was a chance but not taken

lunch: "Wow, first a terrible umpiring decision when that was clearly heading a foot down leg, then a terrible review when impact was clearly a foot outside off. " Happens

Walt: "Haha, England won't win by 10 wickets! Gotta appreciate the little things in life. "