Bates wants New Zealand to ‘keep getting better’ ahead of World T20

Bates scored a 52-ball 77 but only two of her team-mates reached double figures as New Zealand were restricted to 145/8, a total that would always prove difficult against an Australian side with immense batting depth.

And sure enough, Alyssa Healy and Elyse Villani scored half-centuries as Australia secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series with a six-wicket win.

It renders the final T20I, to be played in Canberra on Friday, a dead-rubber, but Bates said it was an opportunity for the team to work on a few areas ahead of the all-important ICC Women’s World Twenty20 2018 in the Caribbean next month.

“We competed well, (but) we’ve just been short in a couple of areas,” said Bates. “We’ve a massive World T20 in a few weeks time. The goal is for the group to just keep getting better.

“We’ve made some improvements with our batting, our middle-to-lower order, and we need to keep working on that. Our bowling plans as well, just making sure that, against a quality Australian line-up, we can make them hit to our sweepers a bit more often.”

Bates also admitted she was disappointed at the timing of her dismissal – she was sent back by Ellyse Perry in the 15th over, and New Zealand managed just 27 runs thereafter. “(I got) a little bit lucky early on, which made me get my head down and kick on with a good start,” she said.

“It’s just the type of wicket you can move around (in your crease) and play the shots. It was nice to get some out of the middle. I was a bit disappointed of the time I got out, regardless of the score I was on. It would have been nice to kick on and help the team get a higher score and put pressure on the Aussies.”

Bates was also happy that she now had more time to concentrate on her batting, having handed over captaincy to Amy Satterthwaite in September. “There’s less meetings,” she joked when asked of life post-captaincy, before adding, “It’s really nice to have Amy leading the side, she’s got a really good cricket brain.

“I still want to help as much as I can on the field. But it’s freed me up a little bit to just go out there and concentrate on my own game a little bit more and make sure I’m doing my job for the team, and putting the team in a good place to win games.”