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4th over: New Zealand 16-2 (Gaze 5, Devine 1) Sophie Devine is in at No4. She misses a slog sweep and is hit on the pad; England enquire for LBW but that would have swung past leg stump.
WICKET! New Zealand 13-2 (M Kerr c Bell b Smith 8)
A big wicket for England. Melie Kerr tries to blast Linsey Smith over the top but doesn’t clear Lauren Bell, who takes an excellent running catch at mid-off.
3rd over: New Zealand 13-1 (Gaze 4, M Kerr 8) Gaze plays the first shot of authority, clouting a short ball from Bell through midwicket for four. She’s beaten by the next ball, then misses a premeditated ramp that is spilled by Jones for a bye.
That brings Kerr back on strike; she lifts Bell sweetly to deep backward square for a one-bounce four. A much better over for New Zealand.
2nd over: New Zealand 2-1 (Gaze 0, M Kerr 2) No surprise to see Linsey Smith share the new ball with her stump-threatening left-arm spin. It’s a fine first over, a maiden to Gaze that includes a couple of false strokes.
1st over: New Zealand 2-1 (Gaze 0, M Kerr 2) The New Zealand captain Melie Kerr clips her first ball through midwicket for a couple. But she’s beaten by the next two deliveries, the first after walking down the track.
It’s been a scruffy start form New Zealand, and Izzy Gaze is almost run out without facing off the last ball of the over. She was sent back by Kerr and was barely in the frame when Bouchier’s throw from backward point bounced past the stumps.
WICKET! New Zealand 0-1 (Plimmer b Bell 0)
Gone first ball! Georgia Plimmer, shaping to cut with an angled bat, drags Bell back onto the stumps to give England the perfect start.
England captain Charlie Dean flicks the ball to Lauren Bell, who will open the bowling. She’s the only specialist seamer in the team.
Team news
Alice Capsey opens for England in the absence of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who is awaiting the birth of her first child. Maia Bouchier, who is not in the World Cup squad, takes Sciver-Brunt’s place at No3. There’s no place yet for Tilly Corteen-Coleman.
New Zealand make one change from their win over South Africa at Wellington in March: Bree Illing replaces Lea Tahuhu.
England Dunkley, Capsey, Bouchier, Knight, Kemp, Gibson, Jones (wk), Dean (c), Ecclestone, Smith, Bell.
New Zealand Plimmer, Gaze (wk), M Kerr (c), Devine, Halliday, Green, Sharp, Bates, J Kerr, Mair, Illing.
England win the toss and bowl
Charlie Dean says Nat Sciver-Brunt’s absence is “pretty precautionary” and that England aren’t worried. Oh, and that England would like to field first.
Melie Kerr says New Zealand would also have bowled.
There’s been a bit of rain in Derbs today but tonight’s forecast is good, so we should get a full game.
Daniel Gallan
Every cricket-loving parent will know the feeling. Not a feeling, exactly, more a tiny flicker of hope. A ridiculous, irrational hope that the gods who once reached down and gently kissed the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Ellyse Perry might one day do the same to your little sprog.
You hold your breath the first time you wrap their chubby hands around a plastic bat. You start dreaming absurd dreams when you softly lob a tennis ball in their direction and they accidentally smoke one into the couch.
Maybe, despite all available evidence, despite the fact that you were, at best, a middling club cricketer with an exaggerated pull shot and a weakness against anything spinning away, maybe your child will be different.
In all likelihood they won’t become the next superstar. And that’s fine. Because what you’re really hoping for has little to do with fame or contracts or Test caps. What you’re really hoping for is that they fall in love with the game.
Preamble
England haven’t played a T20 international in the last 10 months. Tonight’s match against the world champions New Zealand at Derby is the first of at least 11 T20s in the next six and a half weeks. England will hope it’s 13 games, because that would mean reaching the final of the upcoming T20 World Cup.
England Women have never failed to win a Women’s World Cup as hosts: 1973, 1993, 2009 and 2017. “No pressure, then!” joked their coach Charlotte Edwards when reminded of that particular statistic.
Before the tournament begins on 12 June, England have two three-match series against New Zealand and India. It’s a chance for Edwards to work out her World Cup team while also looking at alternative options such as Alice Capsey behind the stumps.
Edwards may finalise her best XI, but she won’t see it in action: the captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been ruled out of both series with an increasingly worrying calf injury. Charlie Dean will deputise.
The match starts at 6.30pm BST.
