New Zealand were made to work for their first ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2025 win with a 100-run triumph over Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sophie Devine made her third consecutive half-century as she and Brooke Halliday set up the White Ferns for a competitive total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh\u2019s chase of 228 never got off the ground, despite rearguard efforts from Fahima Khatun and Rabeya Khan delaying New Zealand\u2019s march to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having chosen to bat, New Zealand made a steady start through Suzie Bates, as young quick Marufa Akter was particularly targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia Plimmer failed to get going and was stumped for four from 18 balls off the bowling of Rabeya Khan, as Bates fell two balls later, run out for 29 after a mix-up between her and Amelia Kerr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next wicket also came in a Rabeya over, as the leg-break bowler dismissed Kerr with a fantastic delivery that sent the bails flying and reduced the White Ferns to 38 for three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, just as they had done against South Africa, Sophie Devine and Brooke Halliday batted New Zealand out of trouble, choosing singles over attempts at boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halliday passed fifty for the first time at this World Cup, smacking a Nishita Akter Nishi free hit for four before hitting Shorna Akter for a maximum in the next over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Zealand ramped up the scoring from there, but eventually Bangladesh got a breakthrough as Fahima invited a swipe from Halliday, who was safely caught by Nigar Sultana Joty for 69 from 104.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the third World Cup game in a row, Devine passed fifty, bringing this one up with a six, before another followed as the skipper looked to reserve energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, her next big swing saw her bowled by Nishita for 63 with New Zealand well-placed but wanting more at 179 for five with 6.2 overs to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rabeya got her third wicket of the match as she got Maddy Green stumped for 25 and there was a second run out during her bowling stint off the very next delivery as Jess Kerr rued going for a speculative single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Zealand were still able to push the run rate up but saw Rosemary Mair become the third stumping of the game before Izzy Gaze was bowled by Marufa as New Zealand posted 227 for nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh were going to need their second-highest ever chase in order to win but got off to a slow start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharmin Akter was bowled by Mair for three, with Bangladesh having made just seven runs in 25 balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rubya Haider followed three overs and six runs later before Sobhana Mostary became the third batter to depart for a low single-figure score as the Tigresses slipped to 22 for three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With skipper Joty at the crease, there was hope, but when she went for four from 28 balls, Bangladesh lost several wickets without making much headway in their chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sumaiya Akter and Shorna then departed for one run each as they were both dismissed by Lea Tahuhu on her 100th ODI appearance to leave Bangladesh at 33 for six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nahida provided the first boundary of Bangladesh\u2019s innings and moved their total past 50 runs before she was forced to depart as she sent a flat shot to Eden Carson for Mair\u2019s second wicket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fahima continued the effort for Bangladesh as she became the first batter to pass 20 and overturned an LBW decision on 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was well supported by Rabeya until she was caught on 25 to end a 44-run partnership, while Fahima was the final wicket to fall with her side 101 runs short of their target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brooke Halliday revealed she and Sophie Devine planned to play boring cricket after helping to deliver New Zealand\u2019s first win of the ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halliday made 69 and Devine (63) notched her third straight fifty as the White Ferns set Bangladesh 228 to win in Guwahati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the hot conditions sapping energy, Devine and Halliday planned to focus on singles and tire out the Bangladesh fielders before transferring to big shots at the back end of the innings, which the former succeeded at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They then bowled Bangladesh out for 127 to complete a first win of the tournament after earlier defeats to Australia and South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe biggest thing over the last couple of days was being okay with getting singles and being quite boring,\u201d Halliday said after top-scoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew what the plan was, it was to bat for a long time, until the 40th over, and then from there have a bit of a party time. I couldn\u2019t, but Sophie could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had a lot of net bowlers who bowl similar to what we got today, and we figured out how we were going to play against their bowlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was not easy to bat out there, the mental side was tough and the physical side hit us towards the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSophie kept it really simple, and that works for me. What we did today was keep it simple. If we keep doing what we can control, we will go well in Colombo next up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Devine, part of her move away from running singles was to conserve energy as she looked to manager her diabetes while in the middle for another long stint at this World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cDiabetes was not playing ball, I was running low on sugar and tried to get in as much sugar with Coke and jelly beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is just another challenge in these conditions that are already tough enough. I wanted to get off a couple of overs earlier, but Maddy (Green) chewed my ear off asking me to stay on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh were immediately behind the run rate in their chase after the top order was blown away, with each of the top five falling for four runs or fewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resistance came first from Nahida Akter (17) and then Fahima Khatun (34) and Rabeya Khan (25) as the trend of the middle order scoring fluently at this World Cup continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, for captain Nigar Sultana Joty, who made four from 28 balls at No.3, putting all the pieces together is required if Bangladesh are to get their second win of the tournament to add to their success against Pakistan last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cWhatever we have done in the last game, we wanted to do the same good things here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are not being consistent as a batting unit. When you chase 200-plus, and the top order does not click, it is difficult to chase this sort of target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things we have to learn from here, definitely. We have seen the lower middle order being the best part of the games because they get the runs and help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh play South Africa next, fresh from a dramatic win over India, while New Zealand head to Colombo to take on Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand 227\/9 in 50.0 overs (Brooke Halliday 69, Sophie Devine 63; Rabeya Khan 3\/30, Nahida Akter 1\/36)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bangladesh 127 all out in 39.5 overs (Fahima Khatun 34, Rabeya Khan 25; Jess Kerr 3\/21, Lea Tahuhu 3\/22)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Result: New Zealand won by 100 runs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Zealand were made to work for their first ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2025 win with a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-cricket"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed.jpg",1932,828,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-300x129.jpg",300,129,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-768x329.jpg",640,274,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-1024x439.jpg",640,274,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-1536x658.jpg",1536,658,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed.jpg",1932,828,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/new-zealand-womens-cricket_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4430,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/4430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}