Burke and Tsukigawa down England Women

New Zealand Women 291 for 6 (Tsukigawa 78*, Tiffen 58) beat England Women 272 (Edwards 86, SC Taylor 56, Burke 3-46) by 19 runs
Scorecard

A captain's knock of 86 from Charlotte Edwards and a brisk 56 from Claire Taylor couldn't prevent New Zealand sweeping to their second win in the 4th match of the Women's Women's Quadrangular Series in Chennai.

Chasing a sizeable 292, England lost Caroline Atkins with the first ball of their reply - and Laura Newton didn't last much longer either. But the two Taylors - Sarah and Claire - put on 82 for the third wicket to stage a recovery. Though they fell in quick succession, Edwards took the attack to New Zealand's bowlers, smacking 13 fours in her 93-ball innings. Once she fell to Louise Milliken, England slumped to Suzie Bates and Sarah Burke.

"New Zealand batted really well," Edwards said, "but then we were going really well too and I thought we'd be able to chase 291. We lost wickets at vital times - losing Sarah [Taylor] and Claire Taylor very close together. That's when we lost the game though me and Beth Morgan had a good partnership too. It was a good game of cricket and its disappointing to be at the losing end of it."

In contrast to England's stuttering effort, New Zealand's innings contained four half-centurions with Sarah Tsukigawa contributing a violent 78 from just 56 balls. Whereas England's lower order rather petered away, New Zealand's fizzed with aggression as Aimee Mason (19 from 23) and Nicola Browne (36 from 23) pushed their side up to a large, winning total.

"We got off to a good platform and Browne and I had a good partnership," Tsukigawa said. "In this ground when you bat first you need at least 300 because the outfield is lighting quick. While bowling it wasn't easy. I think me and a few other bowlers got two bad balls an over and [let] them off the hook for a while. But we managed to pull them back in."