claiming a 2-0 lead <\/a>in the three-match series with the remaining game on Thursday.<\/p>\nIt was Australia’s 12th T20 victory in a row, including an unbeaten run during the World Cup in the UK during June and July, prompting Gardner to credit surprise skipper Sophie Molineux with enhancing a winning culture.<\/p>\n
“It’s led by Soph, who has brought this different mantra to the group, and the fun aspect as well,” Gardner said.<\/p>\n
“When you’re enjoying yourself and you’re having fun it creates an environment of growth and wanting to learn and challenge yourself.<\/p>\n
“For us, there’s always someone there who’s wanting your spot so to have that competition always helps.”<\/p>\n
Australia have held the Rose Bowl for more than 26 years, and the trophy is on the line again in March for a three-match one-day series. This will be the first time it has been contested twice in the same season.<\/p>\n
Gardner dominated an otherwise stuttering Australian batting performance, hitting 10 fours and four sixes in 45 balls on the compact North Sydney Oval.<\/p>\n
Australia then smothered New Zealand. White Ferns captain Melie Kerr top scored with 32 from 38 balls while the most successful bowler was leg-spinner Georgia Wareham, who claimed 3-18 from her four overs. <\/p>\n
Beth Mooney looked good for the second time in the series without pressing on, well caught by a diving Maddy Green at long on for 39 from 28 deliveries, lofting a slower ball from Jess Kerr.<\/p>\n
The left-hander survived a couple of chances, most tellingly in the third over when dropped on the backward square leg boundary for four.<\/p>\n
Ellyse Perry was a major part of Australia’s recovery in the opening game but on Tuesday night she was part of the collapse, holing out to long on for 11 as Australia stumbled to 3-41.<\/p>\n
Georgia Voll made her second duck in as many games, skying a hook four balls into the match to be caught and bowled by Bree Illing. In the opening game last Sunday Voll lasted two balls, falling lbw to the same bowler.<\/p>\n
The double failure comes little more than a week after Voll hammered a career best 131 not out in the second of three one-day matches against Bangladesh at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Phoebe Litchfield returned to the side after missing the opening match with a minor hip complaint and slotted into her usual place at No.3, but managed seven. Replacing Tahlia McGrath in the only change to the team, Litchfield mistimed a pull to mid-off.<\/p>\n
New Zealand named an unchanged team after giving Australia a fright in the opening game, with the home side scrambling to victory by two wickets in a tense finish.<\/p>\n
There was no such tension this time, with New Zealand never mounting a serious challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia have retained the Rose Bowl with a comfortable 40-run victory in the Twenty20 International against New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-636613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}