All-round Amelia Kerr stars with hat-trick as NZ clean sweep ODI series

New Zealand Women completed a 3-0 sweep over Zimbabwe in the ODI series, adding to their whitewash with the same scoreline earlier in the T20I series. Amelia Kerr was an all-round star yet again, powering them to a comprehensive 200-run win with a five-wicket haul which included a hat-trick. She ended the series with 16 wickets, which is a Women's ODI record for a bilateral series with fewer than five matches. Her hat trick was also the first by a New Zealand bowler in three decades in Women's One-Day Internationals. In 1996, Emily Drumm defeated Australia to become the last person to accomplish this feat. The historic dismissal was a thing of beauty: it was a loopy, hurried delivery on the middle stump that turned just enough to cut off the top. "I am known more for my wrong' un but really pleased with how the leggies have come out this series." Kerr said after the game. That wasn't to say that the googly did not show up; the second dismissal came off a vicious delivery that turned sharply in after pitching. But it wasn't just her brilliance with the ball. She hit 80 in the first inning, laying the foundation alongside Maddy Green for a score of 300 or more. After scoring her first ton in a Twenty20 International match two weeks earlier, it was her fourth score of 40 or more in her last five international innings. It wasn't all smooth to begin with, with Kerr conceding that the Zimbabwe spinners targeted the stumps well, making it difficult to score freely. By the 10th over, New Zealand had only managed 38. Kerr discovered additional gears with Green while he was on 30 off 50 at one point. New Zealand reached 200 in the 39th over thanks to a late push from Brooke Halliday, Jess Kerr, and Isabella Gaze, who added another 103. Green fell on 94 off 73, giving New Zealand the middle-overs push, but falling just short of her third ODI hundred. As they have across the series, Zimbabwe kept switching between options, trying out eight bowlers. The chase could never really get going. Jess Kerr and Bree Illing, who had extracted early movement throughout the series, kept things tight early on. Beloved Biza, a 17-year-old who has impressed in parts of this series, was out when Rosemary Mair struck off her first ball, ending a brief partnership for the second wicket. There was very little resistance thereafter, aside from Loreen Tshuma. Her 34 from No.5 kept the innings from disintegrating completely, even as she kept losing partners. Their slide was accelerated when Amelia Kerr pressed herself into action. They dropped from 39/1 to 76/8. One of the series' debutants, Nensi Patel, bowled 33 dots out of 42 balls to maintain her dominance of the middle overs. But it was Kerr who cleaned up the tail, walking away with the Player of the Match and Series awards. To put her domination in perspective: the next best after her series' tally of 16 wickets was Molly Penfold, with five. That's some way to kickstart a full-time captaincy stint.