| First one-day international, Wellington |
| New Zealand 207 (48.2 overs): Bates 50 (74); Bell 3-41, Dean 3-57 |
| England 209-6 (41.2 overs): Jones 92* (83), Dean 42* (70) |
| England won by four wickets |
| Scorecard |
Amy Jones hit a superb unbeaten 92 to lead England to a four-wicket win over New Zealand in the first one-day international.
Needing 208 to win, the tourists slumped to 79-6 in Wellington before being rescued by a record unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 130 between Jones and Charlie Dean.
Jones took the lead, playing a perfectly paced counter-attacking knock, with Dean keeping her cool in a valuable supporting knock of 42 as England got over the line with 8.4 overs to spare.
Dean had earlier taken three wickets to become the fastest woman to 50 ODI scalps in only her 26th game.
The off-spinner made the initial breakthrough after an opening partnership of 90 between Suzie Bates and Bernadine Bezuidenhout.
Bates was dropped twice in the first seven balls of the match and was also fortunate to escape lbw and stumping shouts which would have been overturned had they been reviewed.
She made the most of that good fortune to hit her 34th ODI fifty but was stumped next ball as the White Ferns subsided to 207 all out.
That looked eminently chaseable at the halfway point but England quickly found themselves in trouble and, when Danni Wyatt was bowled by Amelia Kerr in the 17th over, the visitors were six down and facing defeat.
But Jones and Dean went about rectifying the situation to give Heather Knight’s side a 1-0 series lead as the teams head to Hamilton for the second ODI, beginning at 23:00 GMT on Wednesday.
More to follow.
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