Bates 95* trounces West Indies

Suzie Bates, the New Zealand Women's captain, made a controlled 91-ball 95 to usher her side to a resounding nine-wicket victory in the first of three ODIs against West Indies Women in Lincoln.

A target of 182 proved little trouble as Bates partnered with Sara McGlashan to seal the game inside 30 overs. Their 142-run partnership was rapid, unyielding and not altogether surprising. Both players had struck three consecutive half-centuries for their state sides before facing a single ball on Saturday. Bates was primed to convert to triple-figures, striking 14 fours, but was five short when the chase was complete. McGlashan was able deputy and though she struck only five fours, she raced to 60 off 61 balls.

The foundation to that match-winning partnership was set by the bowlers though. West Indies did scrap through their 50 overs, but they were constantly losing wickets. Kycia Knight and Stefanie Taylor managed starts but they failed to progress beyond the thirties. Their colleagues fared worse as the opening stand of 45 remained the highest partnership of the innings and ensured the visitors were always on the back foot.

Bates was a thorn with the ball as well, snaring two wickets. Sophie Devine was also impressive, pocketing two wickets and a timely run-out.

The manner of victory pleased Bates immensely and she was thankful for the luxury of going into the series on the back of some good form in domestic cricket. "You just can't match game preparation," she said. "As hard as you train and as similar as you try to make it, there's nothing other than scoring runs and knowing you've scored runs recently and went out there on a good wicket and did what we've been doing all summer"

But there were still areas to work on, like offering West Indies their third highest score (25) through extras. "To keep them to 181 was pretty good," Bates said. "I still think we gave away too many loose deliveries at the end of overs. Probably extras, I think they were over 20 which in international cricket is too many but with the bat we probably couldn't have paced it better."