Amy Satterthwaite rues lack of big partnerships as New Zealand go down in first ODI

New Zealand fought hard against England in the first ODI at the County Ground in Bristol but fell short by 30 runs against a well-oiled bowling unit on Thursday (September 16). Amy Satterthwaite, who played a valiant knock of 79 not out, admitted that the it's the lack of big partnerships that cost them the game in their first match in the format since April 2021.



“Coming into this game, in terms of the goal of ours was to keep bigger partnerships,” Satterthwaite said at the media interaction after the match. “I think, they had a couple of big partnerships with the bat and we weren’t able to replicate that. Soph (Devine) and I started to get one going, but if you are going to win the games like that we have to make it bigger and get to three figures if we can.”



New Zealand made a few changes in the batting line-up as Maddy Green came to bat at number three, and Sophie Devine batted at number five. Satterthwaite said New Zealand are trying to find the optimal order to achieve better results as they haven't gone their way in recent times.



“It is (batting order) different, It is something Bob (Carter) and Sophie have been looking at. We probably haven’t played our best cricket in the last couple of years in the 50-over format, and then you start looking at how we are going about things and is there any different ways we can do it, which might mean that we end up with better results. It’s something that we are trying and going to see how it goes across the series," she said.



The visitors were able to halt the flow of runs as England’s middle-order could not add much to the team’s total. Captain Heather Knight then found a partner in Katherine Brunt as they added 88 runs to the total. However, England lost their final four wickets for just nine runs to be all out for 241. Satterthwaite said New Zealand thought that was the par total on the wicket.



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“We talked about it (England’s total) in the half-time and thought it was about par. The way Heather Knight and Katherine Brunt formed a partnership, we were a little disappointed. They probably put on a few too many than we would have liked, but I think outside of it, really proud of the way that we fought back after their start and took regular wickets," Satterthwaite added.



New Zealand were struggling at 143 for eight before Lea Tahuhu (25)  and Leigh Kasperek (15) helped Satterthwaite to take the game deeper than England would have imagined. The southpaw said it is a ‘glimmer of hope’ to see these players scoring runs in difficult situations and shows the depth in the batting line-up.



“I think when I am sitting down the other end and watching a too few many wickets fall and when you see the next person coming in, every time you have a glimmer of hope that we still have a chance here. When Leigh Kasperek came at number 11, I thought the longer we are out there, and if we took right till the end. Who knew what could happen? And we got close," Satterthwaite said.



New Zealand have very little time to turn things around as the second ODI of the five-match series will be played on September 19 at County Ground in Worcester. Satterthwaite believes it is positive for her team as they don’t get any time to dwell upon the loss.



“Everyone keeps talking about how quick these games are going to come throughout this series. I think in a way we can’t dwell on it too much, and we have to pick out key bits of information and look to improve. We are not going to find a whole lot in few days, so we have to trust what we have got and believe in it. We were really competitive in the T20I series, and we have shown today in patches what we can do, and we have to keep taking a lot of heart out there,” she concluded.