*** It's double treat for the New Zealand cricket team on Tuesday. Both the Men's and the Women's team had a rather comfortable outing on the pitch in their opening match of the ICC World T20 tournament.
Suzie Bates, the synonym for the current New Zealand women's team, led the team scoring rate with a quickfire 37, guiding the team to a comfortable win with more than 24 balls to spare over the Sri lankan eves and thereby ensured that the their had a perfect start to the tournament here on Tuesday at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.
New Zealand eves started their chase with captain Suzie Bates and Rachel Priest coming in on the pitch.
The openers had put on 64 runs for the first wicket before Bates was bowled by Siriwardene.
But, Sara McGlashan (21 not out) and Amy Satterthwaite (13) made sure they reached home without any stutter.
Earlier, seeing the way, lankan eves started off with Yasoda Mendis and Chamari Atapattu smacking every ball, the team were set to put up a big score but Suzie Bates, New Zealand captain and her bowlers made sure that was not the case.
For lanka, Yasoda Mendis and Dilani Manodara scored 30 and 37 and shared a partnership of 43 runs off 41 balls but that was it for the lankans. Once leigh Kasperek broke the opening partnership between Chamari and Yasoda, it was difficult for lanka to keep the scoreboard ticking without fall of wickets.
For NZ eves, leigh Kasperek picked two wickets with lea Tahuhu, Suzie and Amy picking one wicket apiece.
At the post match conference, New Zealand eves captain Suzie Bates said, "I am happy that we have started of the tournament in great style and won it comfortably. For me, the turning point in the game was those three crucial run-outs. That really changed the game for us."***