16th over: New Zealand 64-2 (A Kerr 28, Green 8) Another nice over from TCC, just three singles off it. Sun shining down at Durham, these two sides in a tussle.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n 15th over: New Zealand 61-2 (A Kerr 26, Green 7) Gibson looks fit and has put on a yard of pace by all accounts. She slides one down the leg side and Amy Jones pulls off some lightning work with the gloves to prevent four byes.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 14th over: New Zealand 57-2 (A Kerr 24, Green 6) Kerr dances down and gets her rewards, timing a lofted drive off TCC for four. Fifty up for New Zealand.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 13th over: New Zealand 48-2 (A Kerr 18, Green 4) Another debutant makes her bowling bow. Dani Gibson\u2019s medium pace is on a nagging line and she rattles through her first for the cost of just three runs.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 12th over: New Zealand 45-2 (A Kerr 17, Green 2) Maddy Green joins Kerr in the middle and sees out the rest of TCC\u2019s second and wicket-taking over with a couple of singles.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.59 EDT<\/p>\n WICKET! Georgia Plimmer c Bell b Corteen-Coleman 20 (New Zealand 42-2)<\/p>\n What a moment for Tilly Corteen-Coleman! She tempts Plimmer into a dance down and the Kiwi batter can only plink an easy catch to Bell at mid off! A first international wicket for the youngster and she\u2019s deserved it after a very tidy start.<\/p>\n England’s Lauren Bell celebrates after taking a catch to dismiss New Zealand’s Georgia Plimmer off the bowling of Tilly Corteen-Coleman. Photograph: Lee Smith\/Action Images\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.57 EDT<\/p>\n 11th over: New Zealand 42-1 (Plimmer 20, A Kerr 16) Bell sends down her sixth over on the spin, just three runs off it.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 10th over: New Zealand 39-1 (Plimmer 18, A Kerr 15) A very tidy over from Corteen-Coleman to begin with. She sets her own field and lands it on a postage stamp, just two singles off it and much encouragement from her teammates.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 9th over: New Zealand 37-1 (Plimmer 17, A Kerr 14) Bell goes back of a length and gives Kerr to much width which she gleefully accepts with a cut for four.<\/p>\n Right then, the debutant Tilly Corteen-Coleman is coming on to bowl. Deep breaths!<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 8th over: New Zealand 32-1 (Plimmer 17, A Kerr 9) Drop! Maia Bouchier spills a simple chance at gully to give Plimmer a life! Bouchier hangs her head, it was right at her, went in and straight out. Plimmer had just hit two fours too \u2013 a pull followed by a rasping cut shot. Filer trudges back to her mark and allowed herself a chunter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 7th over: New Zealand 23-1 (Plimmer 9, A Kerr 8) Lauren Bell is on the money again, just a single to Kerr off the over. England could maybe put a slip in and ramp up the pressure here, they\u2019ll want early wickets after winning the toss and getting first use of the ball in helpful conditions.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 6th over: New Zealand 22-1 (Plimmer 9, A Kerr 7) Melie Kerr shows her shotmaking class with a punishing cut for four off Lauren Filer. That flew away to the fence like a pebble skimmed across a glacier. Kerr really is a joy to watch.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 5th over: New Zealand 16-1 (Plimmer 8, A Kerr 2) Plimmer pounces on a full delivery from Bell and scythes through cover point for four runs. Bell going full in search of that early swing. The outfield is lush but pretty quick and there\u2019s a decent crowd in, about 4000 tickets sold in advance and a fair few more walk ups.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 4th over: New Zealand 11-1 (Plimmer 3, A Kerr 2) Plimmer clips a single into the leg side and Kerr opens her account with a flick off an in-swinger into the leg side. All eyes on England\u2019s fielding, that is an area that Charlotte Edwards has really been drilling them on to improve, dropped catches and sluggish efforts were becoming all too common sight in the years preceding.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 3rd over: New Zealand 8-1 (Plimmer 2, A Kerr 0) Georgia Plimmer works a single down to deep third to bring Kerr on strike to Lauren Bell. It\u2019s a top over from the lissom limbed seamer, she keeps Kerr honest for three dots.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 2nd over: New Zealand 7-1 (Plimmer 0, A Kerr 0) New Zealand\u2019s captain comes to the middle, Amelia Kerr is in white hot form and is very much a key wicket. Filer wasn\u2019t down to play today but a late niggle for Issy Wong saw her get the call up.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>WICKET! Suzie Bates c Jones b Filer 6 (New Zealand 7-1)<\/p>\n Lauren Filer strikes in her first over! Bates beaten for pace and bounce and nibbles at a lifter outside off stump, the thin edge flying to Amy Jones behind the sticks.<\/p>\n England bowler Lauren Filer celebrates the wicket of Suzy Bates with team mates. Photograph: Stu Forster\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.19 EDT<\/p>\n 1st over: New Zealand 6-0 (Bates 6, Plimmer 0) Lauren Bell has the ball in hand and she bowls England\u2019s first ball in anger for 194 days. It is outside off stump and Suzie Bates picks up two runs with a guide through point. Could be a huge summer for Lauren Bell as she leads this England seam attack, she had a fantastic stint in the WPL with RCB and has really worked on her accuracy.<\/p>\n Ah, as I type that she serves up a full bunger on leg stump that Suzie Bates clips off her pads nonchalantly for four. Six off the first over, England buzz about in their new powder blue kit.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The players take to the field for the anthems, we\u2019ll be underway very shortly.<\/p>\n Tanya is on the tools for the county championship live blog, you can dip a toe right here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n England are blooding new players then, Sky show a nicely done package with Ian Ward and Head Coach Charlotte Edwards as she talks about how she has been drilling this team and making sure they are primed to give everything in something of a defining summer. Edwards describes teenage off spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman as \u201ca dream\u201d to work with.<\/p>\n Raf was critical of the status quo in this piece a few weeks back. It would have been nice to see another teenage sensation, this time with the bat in hand – Davina Perrin get an opportunity.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Teams: <\/p>\n England hand ODI dayboos to Jodi Grewcock, Tilly Corteen-Coleman and Dani Gibson.<\/p>\n England: Emma Lamb, Jodi Grewcock, Heather Knight, Maia Bouchier, Freya Kemp, Amy Jones (wk), Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell, Tilly Corteen-Coleman<\/p>\n New Zealand: Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Amelia Kerr (capt), Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Izzy Gaze (wk), Izzy Sharp, Jess Kerr, Nensi Patel, Rose Mair, Bree Illing<\/p>\n Share<\/a>England win the toss and choose to bowl first<\/p>\n The sun is shining in Durham but it still looks like top coat temperature. Charlie Dean has no hesitation in sticking the opposition in. She says there are three debutants in the side today and mentions \u201cturning the page\u201d with this ODI side. Kerr admits that she would have bowled first too, there should be some life in the wicket early on.<\/p>\n Confirmed sides in two tics.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble Hello and welcome to the start of the English international summer. England\u2019s women take on New Zealand in a three match ODI series before a trio of T20s against Amelia Kerr\u2019s impressive White Ferns sets them up for a home T20 World Cup on home soil.<\/p>\n Charlie Dean steps up to take the Captain\u2019s arm band with Nat Sciver-Brunt hoping to recover from a calf tear in time to lead the side in the World Cup starting on June 12th.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s 194 days maybe since our last international game.\u201d Dean told the press in her media duties ahead of this series. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a really productive winter. We\u2019ve not had international series, which hasn\u2019t been fantastic, but we\u2019ve really made the most of the prep that we have had.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a huge summer for English and women\u2019s cricket, as Raf Nicholson excellently put it in these pages:<\/p>\n \u201cHistoric occasions are like buses: you spend ages twiddling your thumbs and then two come along at once. England have waited nine years for another home World Cup, wallowing all the while in memories of their win in 2017<\/a>, and almost a century for a maiden women\u2019s Test at Lord\u2019s. Now both are being thrust upon them over the space of a single month, from 12 June to 13 July, in a true summer bonanza for women\u2019s cricket.<\/p>\n First, though, a T20 World Cup dress rehearsal: three one-day internationals against New Zealand, followed by three Twenty20s against the same opposition, and another three against India. The 50-over series, which begins on Sunday in Durham, feels a little as if it has been plonked thoughtlessly into the calendar. The wicketkeeper Kira Chathli and all-rounder Jodi Grewcock could make their England debuts \u2013 after all, the head coach, Charlotte Edwards, promised us she would \u201clook to the future\u201d after England\u2019s drubbing in last year\u2019s 50-over World Cup semi-final<\/a>. But right now, no one in the England management has much bandwidth to plan for anything other than the possibility of reaching a home final at Lord\u2019s on 5 July.\u201d<\/p>\n Play begins in Durham at 11am and we\u2019ll have news from the toss and the teams very shortly. Join us for all the OBO action and please do get in touch throughout the day.<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/James_Wallace.png\")
James Wallace<\/p>\n