Suzie Bates and Amy Satterthwaite made a big partnership of 98 runs to put New Zealand on top of India in the first ODI.
The hosts put up a huge score of 275 runs for the visitors to chase. Jess Kerr was the pick of the bowlers who took four Indian wickets and bowled them out for 213.
New Zealand would have even reached 300 had it not been for the Indian bowlers who took wickets in quick succession to stop the hosts at 275.
It was Bates’ 11th ODI century and she enjoyed every moment of it by taking up all the Indian bowlers.
Bates has had rather a rough ride in the past 10-15 months. After recovering from her shoulder injury, she decided to play in home matches to build up her form once again and also skipped the WBBL for this very reason. She made 218 runs in six ODIs and also was the highest run-getter in the SuperSmash T20 Tournament having managed to get 504 runs in 12 matches.
Mithali Raj and Yastika Bhatia kept up the momentum briefly for India but after they got out along with Harmanpreet Kaur, India pretty much looked out of the competition.
