Dominant Satterthwaite seals series for New Zealand

Amy Satterthwaite's two wickets and fourth ODI century studded New Zealand Women's dominance in the third ODI, which they won by eight wickets to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series against Pakistan Women. Satterthwaite struck an unbeaten 115 off 101 balls - her second consecutive century, coming on the back of a career-best 137 not out in the second match - as New Zealand chased down 264 in 44.2 overs at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln. That, after Pakistan backed their captain Sana Mir's decision to bat by putting up 263 for 6, their third-highest total in ODIs and the best against New Zealand in ODIs.

Satterthwaite walked out at the fall of Rachel Priest, who had laid a good foundation with New Zealand captain Suzie Bates, putting on 60 for the first wicket. Satterthwaite consolidated with her captain, taking New Zealand to 162 for 2 in the 31st over, before Mir struck for a second time, having Bates caught on 74. Katey Martin joined Satterthwaite and slammed an unbeaten 50 off 45 balls to see New Zealand through. Satterthwaite ended up with 11 fours.

"She's so good to watch. Amy has been outstanding. In South Africa, she really led from the front with the bat and she has just continued to score runs and doesn't even look like getting out," Bates said. "And then, Martin at No. 4, pretty new in that role, and for her to show her huge potential at this level and score fifty after fifty, she's brilliant for the team going forward, and in going into the World Cup, we've got two batters in really good form. We've asked our top-four in the last few seasons to be consistent and now we're starting to see that.

"We knew it was a really good wicket. Bowling out there, there was no margin for error. No demons in the wicket at all, we just had to play good cricket shots and (there were) plenty of runs out there."

Pakistan used seven bowlers and Mir had the best figures, finishing with 2 for 43 in 10 overs.

New Zealand could have been potentially chasing a stiffer target had Pakistan finished better. Ayesha Zafar (30) and Nahida Khan (25) made steady starts, before Javeira Khan (73) and Bismah Maroof, who top-scored with an unbeaten 91, took them to 200 for 2 in the 40th over. The 117-run partnership, Pakistan's joint third-highest in ODIs, ended with Satterthwaite dismissing Javeira, and though Dar stayed on, regular wickets prevented a late surge with Pakistan scoring just 59 runs in the last 10 overs.

Bates, however, still felt New Zealand's effort on the field could have been better. "Very disappointed with the way we started with the ball and we never really pulled it back. And credit to Pakistan, they batted outstandingly," she said. "Not taking anything away from them, but I don't think we had our lines as often as we would have liked and we were perhaps on the backfoot in the field, so there's a huge learning to take from that fielding performance."

Satterthwaite had a busy day, topping the wickets column and finishing with 2 for 65 in 10 overs, apart from taking two catches and being involved in a run-out. New-ball bowler Lea Tahuhu took 1 for 30 in 10 overs and Bates finished with none for 31 in 10 overs.

The fourth ODI takes place on Thursday at Nelson, before the series concludes on Saturday at the same venue.