Daily Archives: September 24, 2021

People wear masks as they exercise during a lockdown to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Auckland, New Zealand, August 26, 2021. REUTERS/Fiona Goodall

WELLINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - New Zealand may not get back to having zero coronavirus cases in the community, the director general of health said on Thursday, as the country continues efforts to stamp out the infectious Delta variant of the virus.

New Zealand eliminated COVID-19 last year and had been largely virus-free, barring a small number of cases in February, until the latest outbreak of the Delta variant erupted in August, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to order a nationwide lockdown.

Its biggest city Auckland is still in lockdown with a small number of new cases being reported everyday.

"We may not get back to zero but the important thing is we are going to keep finding any infections and basically continue to contact trace, test and isolate people so that we stop the virus circulating in the community... that's the aim," Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health told Radio New Zealand.

Bloomfield said the aim now was to try and get on top of the outbreak while also ramping up vaccination rates.

"Get that vaccination rate up over 90%...that's absolutely our new means whereby we will be able to get back to the freedoms we had," he said.

Ardern's tough lockdowns and international border closure in March 2020 helped rein in COVID-19, but the government now faces questions over a delayed vaccine rollout. After an apparent delayed start, New Zealand has ramped up inoculation with nearly 40% of the country's 5.1 million people now fully vaccinated.

Authorities reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, all in Auckland, taking the total number of cases in the current outbreak to 1,080.

At a daily COVID-19 press conference later in the day, however, the COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the government had not given up on achieving zero cases.

"We are not giving up on getting back down to zero. That is absolutely what we are striving for," Hipkins said.

Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New Zealand says it may not get to zero COVID-19 cases again - Reuters

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The father of three young girls who were killed last week in New Zealand said Thursday his precious angels had been ripped away from him in a loss he would carry for the rest of his life.

But orthopedic surgeon Graham Dickason also said he'd already forgiven his wife Lauren and urged others to do the same. He said she, too, was a victim in the tragedy.

Dickason wrote his thoughts in a letter that was read aloud by a reverend during a candlelight vigil that was attended by hundreds of people outside the familys home in the South Island town of Timaru.

Lauren Dickason, 40, has been charged with murder in the deaths of her twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla, and their 6-year-old sister Liane, in a crime that has shocked New Zealand. She is being kept at a psychiatric facility ahead of her next scheduled court appearance on Oct. 5.

The Dickason family moved into housing for medical professionals near the Timaru Hospital in New Zealand less than a week before the killings. Before that, as new arrivals from South Africa, they were required to spend two weeks in a coronavirus quarantine hotel run by the military.

Graham Dickason returned home just before 10 p.m. last Thursday and found the bodies of his daughters, according to reports. Emergency services said that when they responded, they found Lauren Dickason, who was hospitalized in stable condition and later charged by police.

Neighbors called police when they heard a man screaming and crying.

A judge has suppressed the details of the alleged crime.

At the vigil, Graham Dickason said in his letter that parents of young children should remember to let them play wildly and to laugh.

The family had just moved to New Zealand from South Africa, where former neighbors and others who knew them laid wreaths and flowers later Thursday outside the estate where they used to live. Colorful wreaths lay next to a white cross at the housing estates entrance in the South African capital, Pretoria.

Christine Wright, who said she had been a patient of Graham Dickasons, was one of those to bring flowers. She said she and her husband had seen news of the killings in South Africa, where it has gained media attention.

We couldnt believe it at first. I mean, it was just such a shock to us, she said. We had to read it twice to actually realize that it was our doctor.

Wrights husband, Allan, said Dickason's wife had assisted in some surgeries and she seemed like a very nice person.

Nothing on Lauren Dickasons social media pages over recent months when she was living in Pretoria indicated anything was amiss.

She posted pictures of her family and of bakery treats, and wrote about the virus, urging people to get vaccinated. In May, she marked the couples wedding anniversary on Facebook.

Happy 15th wedding anniversary Graham Dickason. What an adventure. We have truly created a beautiful family and had many good times together, she wrote. May the next years be more blessed, more happy and may the kids let us sleep.

Her Facebook page says she went to high school in Pretoria and studied medicine in Cape Town.

Mandy Sibanyoni, who worked as a childminder for the Dickasons in South Africa, described them as an awesome family with wonderful kids and no obvious problems.

She said the only sign of stress she saw from Lauren Dickason was as a result of one of her daughters being born with a lip disfigurement, which needed surgical interventions. But both parents loved their kids like nobodys business, she said.

Im torn apart, a part of mine is gone, Sibanyoni said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. And its like those kids, they are my kids too because I raised them.

I dont know what to do about this because the only question that Ive got now is, what happened? What went wrong? Because Lauren cared for her kids.

Associated Press writer Mogomotsi Magome in Pretoria, South Africa contributed to this report.

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Dad of 3 girls killed in New Zealand says he's forgiven wife - ABC News

Overseas New Zealanders trying to return home are facing a queue tens of thousands of people long, as the country reopens bookings to cross the border.

The countrys borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter, and all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ).

Demand for those spaces has vastly outpaced demand, with some hopeful returnees spending weeks refreshing the site, employing MIQ assistants or using bots to assist them secure a space.

The scale of the problem facing those trapped overseas has now been revealed for the first time, as the government opened a lobby system for booking quarantine spaces, showing where people are in the queue. Many took to social media to express their frustration posting screenshots showing thousands of people ahead of them.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment confirmed that 31,800 people were in the queue on Monday, and 5,364 of them secured vouchers for rooms. The vouchers were released at 9am and all were gone within two and a half hours.

I know many thousands of people missed out on vouchers in todays release, the joint head of MIQ, Megan Main, said in a statement. I want to reassure people that there are still several thousand vouchers still to be released through to the end of the year. They will get other chances. There will be another large release of a few thousand vouchers early next week and there may also be another smaller one later this week.

The government paused all new releases of quarantine rooms during the latest outbreak of Covid-19 in New Zealand, and only began releasing rooms again on Monday.

New Zealand is still battling to crush the Delta variant outbreak. A level 4 lockdown has managed to reduce daily case numbers to about 11-24 a day, but has not yet eliminated community transmission completely.

On Monday, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland, the centre of the outbreak, would move out of its level 4 lockdown into level 3 restrictions, which allow socially distanced services like takeaway food, at midnight on Tuesday. The rest of the country is at level 2 no longer in lockdown, but with some restrictions on gathering size and mask-wearing.

New Zealand reported 14 new cases on Tuesday, all but one of which were linked to existing infections. There are now 1,085 cases in the outbreak, 790 of which have recovered.

In total 71.6% of New Zealands eligible population (those aged 12 and over) have had at least one dose of the vaccine, and 37.8% are fully vaccinated.

On Tuesday, Ardern announced fines would increase for those caught breaching the rules the maximum fine for a person would increase to $1,000 to $12,000, and the maximum fine for companies from $1,000 to $15,000.

Throughout our Covid work, our success has been really based on the fact that people by and large have been really compliant, and its meant on a number of occasions now weve been able to manage the virus successfully. However there has been the odd person that has broken the rules and put others at risk, Ardern said.

The increases follow several high-profile cases of people breaching lockdown rules, including an Auckland couple that took a holiday to Wnaka in the South Island, a man who drove a caravan across the country, and two men arrested at the border with $100,000 and a boot-full of KFC.

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Frustration for New Zealand returnees as Covid quarantine waiting list hits 30,000 - The Guardian

Thousands of migrating birds have been welcomed back to New Zealand to the sound of cathedral bells, after making one of the longest avian migration flights in the world.

Eastern bar-tail godwits, or kuaka in Mori, landed on Motueka sandspit at the top of the South Island on Tuesday, where they rested following the 10,000km (6,200 miles) non-stop flight from the Arctic, RNZ reported.

Across Nelson, the nearest city, the bells rang out to celebrate the arrival, and cathedral staff read out a prayer of thanks.

Bar-tailed godwits make the mammoth journey across the Pacific from their breeding ground in the Arctic to New Zealand every year.

Last year, one godwit, said to have the aerodynamic build of a jet fighter was tracked flying more than 12,000km (7,500 miles) from Alaska to New Zealand, setting a new world record for avian non-stop flight.

This years trip was not without its hurdles. On Monday, the Department of Conservation reported that one unlucky godwit, who was being tracked, was forced to take a huge u-turn over the Pacific ocean and finished up back at his Alaskan take-off point after 57 hours of constant flight.

The adult male bird, known as 4BRWB because of the bands on his legs, took off from tidal flats in Alaskas Yukon-Kuskokwim delta on 11 September before encountering strong winds 2,000km into his journey and turning back after 33 hours of outward bound flight.

Other godwits who left the Yukon at the same time as 4BRWB made it to New Zealand, but it is feasible others also turned back, ornithologist at Massey University Phil Battley said.

The birds u-turn mid-migration was unusual: Over the years weve tracked about 70 godwits leaving Alaska, and this is the first we know has had to turn back because of bad winds, he said.

In New Zealand some 80,000 godwits arrive and move into harbours and estuaries across the two islands. The species is in decline, due to the collapsing food supply in the Yellow Sea.

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Cathedral bells ring out as New Zealand welcomes godwits after longest migration - The Guardian

In canceling the tour last week, the New Zealand team did not specify the exact nature of the security threat. But the countrys prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said New Zealand Cricket made the right decision.

You will understand why we are not in a position to give further information as to the nature of the intelligence, other than to say, it was a direct threat, and it was a credible threat, Ms. Ardern was quoted as saying Sunday.

Officials in Pakistan said they had not received a threat and asked their New Zealand counterparts for more information. A former spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, or T.T.P., a banned terrorist group, said in a Facebook post before the scheduled New Zealand game that the team may have been targeted by a different group.

As far as I know a global jihadi organization (IS) is looking for a big target in Pakistan, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, citing the Islamic State terrorist group. It was not clear whether Mr. Ehsan had knowledge of any planned attack, and his Facebook account was deleted shortly after.

The tour cancellations have been met with widespread anger and disappointment in Pakistan. We were all very excited and looking forward to watch the match in the stadium, said Nawab Ahmed Alam, 41, who runs a cricket club in Islamabad, adding that he had bought a ticket to watch the first match between Pakistan and New Zealand. But now with the tours called off, cricket fans feel that Pakistan has been taken back 10 years.

The cancellations are especially frustrating to locals because teams from other countries, like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and South Africa, had begun visiting in 2015, raising hopes that things could return to normal.

Its very unfortunate because the spectators and fans want to see their cricket heroes play in front of them, on the home soil against foreign teams, Mr. Alam said. The thrill and enjoyment has been denied to the fans.

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Pakistan Blames Politics as England and New Zealand Cricket Teams Cancel - The New York Times

Last week, New Zealands government announced a five-month delay to the emissions reduction plan (ERP) its key programme for combatting climate change. This is gutting climate decisions by many organisations and institutions have been delayed since 2017; first to wait for the Zero Carbon Act, then the advice of the Climate Change Commission, and now the ERP, which wont be announced until the budget in May.

The postponement even requires an embarrassing legislative change to the Zero Carbon Act to get around the December 2021 deadline for the plan, which is currently enshrined in law. Every day of delay makes the transition we will have to make to a low-carbon Aotearoa and the ability to make it fair for affected communities more and more difficult.

Two years ago, I was ashamed to be part of the New Zealand government delegation to the last climate conference, Cop25. Despite officials trying to talk us up as a climate leader, people from across the world regularly came up to us and asked what had gone so wrong with our agricultural policy. It has only gotten worse since. Climate Action Tracker recently released a damning assessment of New Zealands climate policies, ranking us highly insufficient and putting us alongside famous climate laggards like Australia and Brazil.

New Zealand now wont have any part of the emissions reduction plan to declare at the crucially important Cop26 in November (yet again New Zealand didnt attend the climate leaders summit last year either because we had no climate policies to announce). It will announce an updated nationally determined contribution (NDC), the emissions reduction target we pledge to the rest of the world.

Concerningly, New Zealand last week decided not to do any public consultation whatsoever on the formation of the NDC. A report from Oxfam argued that when considering our historical responsibility, New Zealands fair share NDC would be a reduction of at least 99% below 1990 levels by 2030 a far cry from the 11% reduction pledge in our current NDC.

If the government wants to show a commitment to what prime minister Jacinda Ardern has called her generations nuclear-free moment, this is the time to do it. Until the climate budget and ERP are released together in May next year, we need businesses, councils and government agencies to do all they can on climate now, during the response to Covid-19. We cannot keep waiting for the ERP the announcement in May that we need will have to be so bold and transformational that decision makers should have picked all of the proverbial low-hanging fruit beforehand; like making public and active transport options more desirable and stopping the expansion of coalmines, motorways, and dairy farms.

Ultimately, New Zealand has an opportunity to make its emissions reduction plan change everything.

It could ban the import of the fossil fuel cars that pollute our air and the phosphate and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers that drive unsustainable dairy farming. It could make an unprecedented investment of billions of dollars in creating clean, living-wage union jobs for all who want them, whether that be teaching our tamariki (children), caring for vulnerable people in society, or building clean transport infrastructure and tens of thousands of warm, dry state homes.

Every fossil fuel worker could be promised a clean job or early retirement, and sticks and carrots could be implemented in our farming system to move towards a regenerative farming system that works with nature, not against it. Core benefits could be increased so everyone in Aotearoa has enough to thrive.

Funding can be diverted from prisons and military warcraft and instead iwi and hap (tribes) could be properly resourced to lead and implement the solutions we know they possess. The Resource Management Act reforms can signal a shift from a system that regulates the exploitation of nature to one that protects Te Taiao (the environment) and honours New Zealands founding document, Te Tiriti O Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi).

Politicians have proven that theyre not going to make those decisions the bold leadership we need unless people power forces them to act. The pressure is ramping up; climate justice groups from across Aotearoa will converge on Taranaki, New Zealands so-called energy centre, during Cop26.

Diverse communities across Aotearoa are doing their bit; protecting native forests, building community gardens and creating popup cycle lanes. The government needs to lift its game and deliver the transformational emissions reductions plan and budget 2022 that we so sorely need.

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The delay to New Zealands emissions reduction plan is embarrassing we need action now - The Guardian

The closing of the trans-Tasman bubble and the New Zealand lockdown has left Kiwis and Aussies stranded on each side of the Tasman for weeks as flights are grounded or cancelled and it has pushed some to extreme measures.

After weeks of stress, expense, cancelled flights and Covid-19 tests Tim Knowlman, his husband Poroutu and their 13-month-old daughter booked a charter plane to take them across the Tasman and are now in managed isolation in Brisbane.

Their move to Aussie had been planned for months and the young family were days away from making the move when the lockdown struck, leaving them without work, a home or flights whilst all their possessions were already on the way to Brisbane.

The couple joined a Facebook page dedicated to Australians and Kiwis trapped on either side of the Tasman which had over 8000 people on it, Knowlman said.

Tim Knowlman/RNZ

Tim Knowlman with his husband Poroutu and daughter Te Awa. They booked a charter flight across the Tasman.

READ MORE:* Claim that Kiwis paying for pre-departure Covid-19 tests being ripped off * Covid-19: Stranded Australians baffled by lack of flights from Covid-free South Island* Air New Zealand's Australian quarantine flights sell out in three minutes* Covid-19: Family in limbo after selling Australian home, quitting job to start new life in Wellington

It was there they saw a post from another Kiwi who was chartering a flight to Brisbane and looking for other interested parties.

"Due to time frames we couldn't travel with that particular man, but he gave us the details of the charter company that was based out of Auckland Airport," Knowlman said.

The charter company had been "very, very busy ... non-stop flying Australians and Kiwis who live in Australia back to Australia".

Tim and Poroutu were given a quote by the charter company and then posted their own message on the Facebook group to see if any fellow trapped Kiwis or Aussies wanted to join the flight and split the cost.

More than a dozen replied and wanted to join, Knowlman said.

Tim Knowlman/RNZ

Tim, Poroutu and Te Awa.

"The actual process itself was really, really easy. The (charter) company made it very, very straightforward. They said they would organise all of our MIQ bookings in Australia when we arrived and we actually found the process with the charter company incredibly easy.

"Once we decided that we would do it, we swallowed our pride and paid the huge amount of money."

"The whole process with cancelled flights, cancelled tests, and chartering a plane. I'd say that the total will probably be close to NZ$40,000."

The past few weeks had been extremely stressful for Knowlman's family and it was only when the plane took off that he let himself believe it was true, he said.

"I've just been this eternal pessimist for the last couple of weeks because I just never thought that it would happen, and even until we got onto the onto this plane. I just thought that there was going to be something that was going to hold our journey and it wasn't really until we took off that I realised that it was all going to go to plan."

It was not the New Zealand government that was the holding up their passage to Australia, Knowlman.

"Over the course of the lockdown we found as we did more research that the issue was an (Australian) state government issue as well as a federal government issue.

"Initially, the Queensland government had closed off all international and domestic arrivals into Queensland for a period of time, but then subsequently we found that it was an issue to do with the international arrivals caps into Australia which is really, really minimal. There's something like 40,000 Australians overseas that are trying to get back to Australia.

"We'd packed up our house, all of our belongings had been packed and shipped and arrived in Australia before we did so we were just living out of suitcases. We were living in a relative's guest bedroom for a number of weeks and then into an Airbnb for a number of weeks and so we felt a like a plastic bag, just kind of floating in the breeze."

Members of their family still had not been able to meet their daughter Te Awa, who was born during New Zealand's lockdown in 2020 and Knowlman said there was a huge number of people in the same situation as his family.

"We're incredibly fortunate that we were able to and that we had the means to be able to do what we did. There are hundreds if not thousands of others that are desperate to get back. Kiwis, who normally live in Australia and the desperation and exasperation that you see on the Facebook page every day is really saddening.

"It's a really, really awful situation for lots and lots of people, so we certainly feel incredibly fortunate and very lucky that we managed to get here."

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New Zealand family charters plane to fly to new life in Australia after weeks stuck in Aotearoa - Stuff.co.nz

This photo shows the drug bust taking place in the northern Indian Ocean. Photo / Arme franaise - Oprations militaires via Facebook

Illegal drugs worth millions of dollars - destined to fund terrorism - have been seized in a New Zealand Navy-led counter-narcotics operation in the Indian Ocean.

French Marine Nationale frigate FS Languedoc this week intercepted and searched a dhow outside the Arabian Gulf suspected of smuggling, seizing more than 1525kg of hash and 166kg of methamphetamine, Royal New Zealand Navy captain Brendon Clark said.

The illegal cargo had a combined value of more than US$5.2 million ($7.4m).

Languedoc was patrolling in support of the New Zealand-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 when it seized the drugs, said Clark, the commander of CTF 150.

It's the task force's first major drug seizure while under Kiwi control.

"Languedoc has once again demonstrated that through collaboration with like-minded partners, CMF [Combined Maritime Forces] is able to seize and destroy millions of dollars' worth of narcotics, the income from which would otherwise be used to fund illicit activities and terrorism."

The outcome owed its success to the strong partnership between CMF, the Marine Nationale and CTF 150, Clark said.

"CTF 150's mission is to disrupt criminal and terrorist organisations and their related illicit activities, including the movement of personnel, weapons, narcotics and charcoal.

"It supports the Combined Maritime Force, which is a multinational maritime partnership of 34 nations upholding international rules-based order. It counters illicit non-state actors on the high seas and promotes security, stability, and prosperity across approximately 8.3 million sq km of international waters, encompassing some of the world's most important shipping lanes."

The New Zealand-led multinational team took over command of CTF 150 from Canada this year.

It was great to have success this early in the New Zealand command, said Commodore Mat Williams, New Zealand Defence Force Maritime Component Commander.

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"We're pleased to be able to make a contribution to global security, and it shows the value of working together with our partners in the CMF."

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Million-dollar drug bust: Royal New Zealand Navy-led team intercept Indian Ocean narcotics run - New Zealand Herald

Australia batsman Usman Khawaja has criticised the decisions by New Zealand and England to scrap their tours to Pakistan and said they would not have made the same call if they had been due to play lucrative series in India.

New Zealand returned home from Pakistan after abruptly abandoning the tour minutes before the opening fixture in Rawalpindi citing a security alert from their government.

England followed suit this week, calling off their men's and women's teams tour of Pakistan next month citing "mental and physical well-being" of the players.

"I feel it's very easy for players and organisations to say no to Pakistan, because it's Pakistan," said Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan. "I think the same thing would apply too if it were Bangladesh.

"But nobody would say no to India, if they're in the same situation. Money talks, we all know that, and that's probably a big part of it."

Australia are also scheduled to travel to Pakistan early next year and governing body Cricket Australia has said it would "talk with the relevant authorities once more information becomes known".

Pakistan was shunned by other cricket nations for almost a decade after the deadly 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore but has been wooing back top international teams in recent years.

Khawaja said he would have no issues touring there.

"There's a lot of security. Heavy, heavy security," he said. "I've heard nothing but reports about people feeling safe.

"Even talking to the guys during the PSL (Pakistan Super League) about what it's like ... they would say the same thing to me 'like 10 years ago, maybe not, but now 100 per cent'."

Updated: September 24th 2021, 9:20 AM

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Khawaja accuses New Zealand and England of double standards over cancelled Pakistan tours - The National

Captain Heather Knight struck a magnificent century in the fourth ODI at Derby, as England overcame New Zealands total of 244 with three wickets left their highest ever successful run chase in one-day internationals to seal a 3-1 series win with one game left to play.

We havent been at our best as a batting group the last couple of games and I was desperate today to be the one to try and hit a big score for the team, Knight said.

She labelled her knock of 101 her best innings in 50-over cricket, adding: Its a bit of a monkey off my back. I havent got another ODI hundred since the first one, in the 2017 World Cup.

A career-best four for 47 from seamer Hannah Rowe ensured the run chase was not without tension. Rowes first spell reduced England from 52 without loss to 71 for three. Lauren Winfield-Hill (33) was bowled by a ball that jagged back off the pitch, while Tammy Beaumont (16) edged behind and Nat Sciver (11) tangled herself up playing around a straight one and was trapped lbw.

Knight shared a century partnership with Amy Jones to calm English nerves, but Rowe struck again in the 38th over Jones (40) toeing to mid-off with 74 runs still needed. Amy Satterthwaite then trapped Sophia Dunkley lbw for a duck, to leave England 185 for five in the 40th over.

Rowes final over, though, cost 13 runs including a six smashed over the legside by the unflappable Danni Wyatt (27 off 27 balls) and Knight calmly continued on her way to three figures, bringing up the milestone with a drive through backward point in the 47th over.

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Both eventually fell in the 49th over, Knight holing out to deep midwicket before Wyatt heaved across the line and was trapped lbw. But Anya Shrubsole walloped Leigh Kasperek down the ground for four before biffing a single and despite Katey Martin whipping off the bails to stump Sophie Ecclestone, Kaspereks delivery was wide, sealing the deal with three balls to spare.

Earlier New Zealand had been reduced to 33 for three in the powerplay after Knight won the toss and inserted the visitors. Suzie Bates (17) had sent Shrubsoles first two balls of the series crashing to the boundary, but in the sixth over she hit the ball to Sciver at midwicket, dashed down the pitch, was sent back and dived too early. The wicketkeeper, Jones, ran Bates out an inch short of her crease.

Shrubsole, who had sat on the sidelines for the first three ODIs after spraining her ankle in training a fortnight ago, then took wickets in successive overs: Tuesdays heroine Maddy Green gently plonked one into the hands of Freya Davies at mid-on for a duck, before Lauren Down (41) was deceived by a beauty that swung in and straightened to take out her off stump.

Sophie Devine took on Ecclestone, slogging her over deep backward square for six, but was trapped lbw by Charlie Dean (three for 52) nine runs short of her half-century. Devines appeal to the third umpire was more in hope in expectation: ball tracking indicated the impact would have been halfway down middle stump.

Half-centuries from Satterthwaite (54) and Martin (65 not out), and some hefty ball striking from Brooke Halliday (28 from 19) at the back end of the innings, though, saw New Zealand recover to 244 for eight.

Englands slip-ups in the field helped them on their way. Ecclestone put down a caught-and-bowled chance against Satterthwaite while she was on 13, while Martin was rapped on the pad by Dean when still in single figures, and was fortunate that England chose not to review it replays showing that the ball would have gone on to hit leg stump.

Its good to contribute to the team I havent done that for such a long period of time, in ODI cricket especially, Martin said. To compete regularly against the world champions is such a confidence builder for us.

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Heather Knights England century seals ODI series win over New Zealand - The Guardian