Priest 60 seals series win for NZ Women

New Zealand Women 139 for 4 (Priest 60, Satterthwaite 24*) beat India Women 136 for 6 (Vanitha 41, Devine 2-31) by six wickets
Scorecard

Rachel Priest's maiden half-century in T20Is powered New Zealand Women to a six-wicket win against India Women in Bangalore, victory also sealing the series for the visitors.

Set 137 for the win, New Zealand lost their captain Suzie Bates off the second ball of the innings, and slumped to further trouble when Sophie Devine, who broke the record for fastest T20 fifty on Saturday, was caught by Jhulan Goswami off her own bowling. However, Priest led a recovery, marshaling a 71-run stand for the third wicket to Leigh Kasperek to put the team back on track. Priest drilled 10 fours and two sixes during her 34-ball 60, but both she and Kasperek fell within quick succession of each other by the 11th over to open the door slightly for India. However, Amy Satterthwaite and Katie Perkins remained unfazed, chipping in with handy twenties to take the team home inside 18 overs.

Earlier, India, after being inserted, were pegged back by early strikes from Devine and Hannah Rowe. Vellaswami Vanitha top-scored with 41 and strung together crucial partnerships with Harmanpreet Kaur (30) and Veda Krishnamurthy (29), but were unable to really accelerate and push on to a big total.