New Zealand survive scare to eke out four-run win

New Zealand's shaky World Cup campaign was at the risk of taking a turn for the worse as Ireland came agonisingly close to hand the defending champions their third defeat in as many games. Amelia Kerr's side scored 140 and nearly didn't defend it, as her opposite number Gaby Lewis (58 off 53) and Orla Predengast (2/26 & 59 off 53) almost pulled off a sensational victory. In the end, Ireland fell just four runs short to give New Zealand their first points of the tournament.

Ireland's chase came down to them needing 15 of the final over when Amelia threw the ball to Suzie Bates for the first time in the game. Bates summoned all her years of experience for this moment, conceding ones and twos as Ireland could only push the equation down to 6 off 1 ball in the end. A dramatic finish there would've given Ireland their greatest World Cup moment but that was not to be, allowing the holders to walk away with a slender but extremely useful four-run win that keeps them alive in the competition.

Before it got to this stage, Ireland's chase was ignited by the pair of captain Gaby Lewis and Orla Predengast who scored a fifty each and added 110 runs off 95 deliveries for the second wicket after opener Amy Hunter was dismissed early. It took them time to push up the scoring rate but through the middle-overs the pair truly turned the screws on New Zealand. They helped maintain a scoring rate of six-an-over while still kept New Zealand behind the eight-ball but picking 13 off Nensi Patel in the 13th over and 9 off Amelia in the 14th. Prendergast got to her half-century in the 15th over and Lewis got it an over later, as Ireland needed 34 off the last 24 deliveries with nine wickets in hand.

Jess Kerr and Amelia then bowled two overs that threw Ireland off course - the 17th from the former fetching just five runs and the 18th from the skipper bringing two wickets - of Prendergast and Rebecca Stokel - and going for only four runs. Rosemary Mair conceded 10 runs in the penultimate over, but crucially, she dismissed Lewis to leave two new batters to pull off a final-over heist, which they couldn't.

Before New Zealand could find their way past a nervy phase to the two points, they saw their boat rocked sideways in the early stages of the game when Ireland reduced them to 10/3 in the fourth over. Prendergast was in the thick of things in that essay too, taking out opener Isabella Gaze and Maddy Green. Aimee Maguire started to downfall by dismissing Georgia Plimmer in the first over. Amelia and Brooke Halliday then picked up the pieces and dragged New Zealand out of the deep quagmire with a 38-run partnership.

But even that fight was ended shortly into the middle-overs when Cara Murray sent Amelia packing for a 24-ball 30. At 48/4, New Zealand stared at an embarrassingly lowly total, only to be rescued to an extent by a gritty partnership. Halliday combined with Izzy Sharp for a fifth-wicket alliance that took New Zealand past the 100-run mark and gave their bowlers a total to work with. Halliday managed only two fours in her 37-ball stay worth 34 runs but Sharp hit four of them in her 36 (28).

New Zealand scored 41 in the death overs, with 22 of those coming in the last two overs. That included a Suzie Bates six - the first of the innings on the final ball of it.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 140/6 in 20 overs (Izzy Sharp 36, Brooke Halliday 34; Orla Prendergast 2-26, Cara Murray 2-26) beat Ireland 136/4 in 20 overs (Orla Predengast 59, Gaby Lewis 58; Amelia Kerr 2-23) by 4 runs