Jenny Gunnblogs exclusively for ecb.co.uk on the second week of England women’s tour of New Zealand.
After our first week in New Zealand we were given a full day off, which gave us the opportunity to get out and explore. We are about an hour’s drive from Matamata where “Hobbiton” is situated. For everyone who, like me, hasn’t got a clue what Hobbiton is, it is the film set for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the new Hobbit films.
The place is absolutely amazing, situated on a 1,250-acre sheep and beef farm with rolling mountains – a truly stunning scene. Out of the group, Lydia Greenway and I haven’t seen any of the films or read the books… but we still found the scenery beautiful.
No such issue for Katherine Brunt, who is a die-hard Hobbit fan, and took the opportunity to have photos taken at every spot throughout the guided tour.
Back to reality and back into the nets preparing for our first one-day international. Cricketers have a tendency to say and do funny things every now and again… and often not on purpose!
Cue Danielle Hazell, who, as she was getting ready for her batting session, putting on her pads etc, proudly declared in the style of “Stars in their Eyes”: “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be a batter”, and walked out of the changing room. A minute later she storms back in as she forgot her bat!
On the eve of our first match I received a message from Becky Grundy asking if I wanted to go for a walk. Knowing how nervous she was about making her ODI debut the next day, I thought it was a good idea to say yes so, along with Susan Dale (our physio), I took her on a long walk to try and calm down.
We travel all away around the World to New Zealand and they have coach trip and Emmerdale on tv!!
— Jenny Gunn (@GunnJenny) February 9, 2015
Grunners was very quiet throughout but we just thought it was due to her nerves. It wasn’t until half way round that we realised she had her headphones in and was listening to her music! Glad we said yes to the walk!
In the first match we were off the pace pretty much from the start. We didn’t hit our lines and lengths with the ball and their two openers got off to a bit of a flyer. It wasn’t until the 30th over, when we got a breakthrough with the score on 157, that we took a bit of control back.
From there we took seven wickets for 70 runs and New Zealand eventually finished on 240, which we felt they would have been disappointed with when they had such a good start.
We didn’t help ourselves with the bat either, as both openers – Charlotte Edwards and Heather Knight– were run out. With regular wickets then lost throughout the innings, we struggled to keep up with the run-rate and fell 67 runs short, and went 1-0 down in the series.
While we have been in Mount Maunganui we have had three games in five days, so it was a quick turn-around after the disappointment of the first ODI, and we were back on the ground playing.
Match two saw us batting first and with the help of Lot (Edwards) scoring 65 and Sarah Taylor’s 45; we got to a total of 194, which on a slow, low wicket we knew meant we would be in the game.
Making the most of the last day in Mt Maunganui with the troops @Heatherknight55@lauramarsh7#touristspic.twitter.com/YxdHFjGY9v
— Lydia Greenway (@lydiagreenway) February 16, 2015
Between innings, Lottie seemed to transform herself into Jonty Rhodes, and before we knew it she had pulled out a one hand diving stop and throw into Sarah behind the stumps to run out the dangerous Suzie Bates.
From there the Kiwis never really got going and we managed to keep taking wickets at regular points. Anya Shrubsole returned to the attack to rip out the middle order, and our spinners finished off the game to bowl NZ out for just 104 and level the series.
The final match of the three International Cricket Council Women’s Championship fixtures was played on the same pitch and Lottie won her third toss in a row, and we had a bat first.
We made a great start with Knight and Lot registering another 50 partnership for the opening stand, with some solid, positive batting. Yet again, however, as soon as we lost one wicket it quickly turned into a cluster of wickets, and from a very strong base, we fell short of our target of over 230, closing on 217 for nine.
We knew taking wickets would be the key to winning the match, however, after Anya got Bates for just 36, the NZ batters didn’t give us much (anything!). The run-rate was always around five-an-over, so we always felt that if we could just make a breakthrough we would be in with a chance, but credit has to go to Rachel Priest and Amy Satterthwaite, who battled through the innings and saw NZ home to win the ICC Women’s Championship series 2-1.
We move on to Whangerai next, which is a six-hour coach trip north from here, and is where we will start our Twenty 20 international series– in which we will come back fighting.