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Sport Nation
Mooney and Sutherland shine as Australia smash White Ferns again
Oliver Caffrey, AAP • March 23rd, 2025 6:10 pm
Photosport: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Australia have continued their utter dominance of New Zealand, recording a thumping 92-run win in Tauranga to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Twenty20 series.
After destroying the White Ferns, who won last year's T20 World Cup, by eight wickets on Friday in Auckland, Australia picked up where they left off in the New Zealand capital.
Star opener Beth Mooney fired again to propel Australia to a whopping 3-204 after stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath won the toss and elected to bat first on Sunday.
Mooney smashed 70 from 42 balls, backing her a splendid unbeaten 75 two days ago in a player-of-the-match performance in her 200th international.
Kerr (1-27) was the pick of New Zealand's bowlers, but the hosts have only managed five wickets across the first two games of the series.
To win, New Zealand would have needed to pull off the second-biggest successful run chase in women's T20 history.
But their innings never got going, losing captain Suzie Bates in the second over as they slumped to 4-45.
After hitting an unbeaten 23 to help Australia power past 200, Annabel Sutherland also produced with the ball.
Sutherland knocked over opener Georgia Plimmer, as well as star veteran Sophie Devine for a first-ball duck.
She was only used for 2.1 overs, but Sutherland finished with career-best figures of 4-8 in an outstanding all-round performance from the reigning Belinda Clark Award winner.
Fittingly, Sutherland took the final wicket of the match, dismissing Eden Carson.
Star allrounder Amelia Kerr was a lone hand for New Zealand with the bat, hitting 40 before falling to star Australia legspinner Alana King (3-27).
In an example of Australia's depth, King was left out of the team for the first T20, despite being named player of the series in the Ashes whitewash earlier this year.
King only came in after star allrounder Ashleigh Gardner suffered a fractured finger while fielding in game one, forcing her to return to Sydney for further scans and seek specialist advice.
Mooney, the fill-in wicketkeeper as Alyssa Healy recovers at home, combined for a 57-run opening stand with Georgia Voll (36) to again stun the White Ferns with an early onslaught.
The series now heads to Wellington's Sky Stadium on Wednesday for the final match of the White Ferns' home summer.
Tune into Sport Nation for live ball-by-ball commentary of the Blackcaps and White Ferns T20 double-headers - download the Sport Nation app on the App Store and Google Play today.
