NZ-W vs SA-W 1st ODI Preview: Kerr, Wolvaardt in Focus

Despite an apparent lopsided scoreline between the T20Is, it appears likely that this series will be much closer when played as the fifty-over format of cricket. The first one-day international match between the New Zealand women’s national cricket team and the South African women’s national cricket team is taking place on 29 March 2023 at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. New Zealand comes into this match after winning the T20 series against South Africa 4-1 and is looking to maintain the rhythm garnered throughout that series while South Africa are playing their first fifty-over match after the T20 series; they need to reset their rhythm prior to the start of championship points count and creating success in the one-day international competition.

Championship points count and early table positioning

The reset is important as New Zealand sits on top of the ICC Women’s Championship table after sweeping Zimbabwe in their previous ODI series; thus, South Africa need to start amassing points quickly as they enter this match in third position after winning their previous ODI series against Pakistan 2-1. As such, this match is not merely an opportunity for the two teams to settle into a new format following an already played T20 series, but these two teams will meet for the first time in the one-day international format having already secured points towards qualification for the ICC Women’s Championship tournament and for early table positioning.

Will South Africa be able to take this series into a long, hard-fought battle? Both captains, Amelia Kerr for New Zealand and Laura Wolvaardt for South Africa, will play a key role in determining which team has the most success.

A longer format of the game

For viewers in India, this is a great opportunity to get out of bed earlier on Sundays because it features high-profile players who have stakes in both the match and the series as well as a longer format of the game which requires batters and bowlers to face much more difficult tests than they would have faced in T20s. These will all contribute towards helping Chennai to change their fortunes when they play Mumbai Indians later that same day.

T20I results are to be totally disregarded.The performance of the two teams can be compared in terms of experience, but they can be separated by their performance in ODIs as to how deep their batting orders will be, how well they have planned their sixth bowler, and whether or not they can show that patience and composure will help them rebuild from one poor spell.

New Zealand has the form in ODIs

In terms of this tournament, New Zealand has the form in ODIs to be able to comfortably be the favourites, but their dominance over Zimbabwe earlier this month, having won all three matches by 180 runs, eight wickets (202 balls remaining) and by 200 runs, suggests they are much better than South Africa, who have only recently lost to Zimbabwe in this tournament. In addition to the aforementioned results, Amelia Kerr scored 140 runs and took 16 wickets in the 3-match series against Zimbabwe.

While South Africa’s ODIs are less polished than New Zealand’s, they can cause problems for the top-order batsmen of New Zealand, as they defeated Pakistan in Bloemfontein by 37 runs and by 16 runs in a combined 706 runs scored in a 206 run shootout in Centurion, before being bowled out for 187 in the final ODI against Pakistan in Durban after Pakistan scored 306 for 8.

So the NZ-W vs SA-W 1st ODI is not about which team is prettier in T20, but which team can maintain their structure from over 11 to over 40, the part of an ODI when it becomes difficult to have a good mark.

Amelia Kerr has been playing too well

Amelia Kerr has been playing too well for South Africa to be able to ignore.During her most recent one-day series, she recorded scores of four for thirty-five, seven for thirty-four, and five for twenty-two, and added scores of forty-five and eighty in the last two matches. The total of sixteen wickets against Zimbabwe equals a record for a bilateral five-match series. New Zealand had also noted that she took sixteen wickets in that series and two five-wicket hauls.

Since that time, she hasn’t let up. She was the leading run-scorer in New Zealand’s T20 series against South Africa with 276 runs, and closed things out in Christchurch with one hundred and five and two for six in a ninety-two-run victory. This wasn’t just good form; it was dominance; and would have made a captain appear as if they had three hands controlling the game.

The overall numbers in ODIs also add to that feeling. By the time the match starts, Kerr will have played one hundred and forty-six ODIs with two-thousand, four-hundred and forty-four runs at forty-one-point-four-two average and one hundred and twenty-two wickets at twenty-seven-point-three-four average. These numbers represent an elite all-around performance at any time in history.

New Zealand doesn’t expect her to take the game over in one burst; rather, they expect Kerr to continue doing a little bit of everything, and the way she is playing right now may be almost impossible to stop.

The biggest problem for South Africa is that Kerr has the ability to do damage to them during the phase in which they will need to survive. If Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt get through the first spell without being dismissed, Kerr will be able to come into the attack and bowl to these two established batsmen as they build the innings.If there is an early wicket taken from New Zealand, then Kerr can bat for long enough to put together a proper rebuilding of an ODI innings. There are very few players in women’s cricket that can have such an effect on both ends of the match.

Laura Wolvaardt remains South Africa’s best option

Laura Wolvaardt remains South Africa’s best option for a clean route. While she hasn’t performed particularly well in her T20I matches against New Zealand so far, she had probably started to find the rhythm from her earlier ODI series against Pakistan where she scored 43, 20, and 1. In addition to her very solid ODI series performance, Wolvaardt has built a very solid career as an ODI cricketer with 5,541 runs at 51.30, including 13 hundreds, and 38 fifties, has allowed South Africa to develop a strong mixture of control, touch square of the wicket, and innings management through the gradual widening of the field.

One additional factor that may play into South Africa’s favour is that the last ODI match between these two sides resulted in a South African victory in the 2025 World Cup in Indore, and that the stronger head-to-head history (especially from their respective 2023 bilateral series) will be a supporting factor for South Africa when they enter the match in Christchurch. Though this does not directly contribute to any runs or wickets being won in Christchurch, it may have an effect on both teams’ confidence and come into play for the players during their performances.

Wolvaardt’s role is to not necessarily match Kerr’s shot selection with Kerr’s; instead, she is to provide runs for her side through consistency with the bat and her overall ability to add value through both runs added for her team through the number of boundaries she hits and tying up the ball through the use of her touch.If South African women can bat through an entire innings, then Chloe Tryon, Suné Luus and Annerie Dercksen will all be able to change the shape of the game. However, if South Africa loses one of its top three batters in the first ten overs, the team will require a significant amount of rescue work and will lose confidence in their ability to win.

New Zealand’s squad seems much fresher

If you look at the supporting cast, New Zealand’s squad seems much fresher than the one that completed its series against Zimbabwe. Suzie Bates, Flora Devonshire and Georgia Plimmer all return from injury, and Kayley Knight received her ODI call-up after performing as a fast bowler in T20Is against Zimbabwe. New Zealand’s top order should have more experience and calmness from its old-ball players and have multiple seam options, giving them a strong reason to believe they can take advantage of South Africa’s lack of depth in their plans.

Even before a ball is bowled, Bates is a huge factor in how New Zealand will approach the game. Bates doesn’t have to dominate to help New Zealand’s batting produce; rather, if she slows down the tempo of the top order’s batting, it makes things easy for Plimmer when she returns to the line-up and for Brooke Halliday as well. Halliday demonstrated this when she scored 157 not out against Zimbabwe, indicating that New Zealand will not depend solely on Kerr for their batting innings during the entire series.

South Africa’s team dynamic is much different

South Africa’s team dynamic is much different than New Zealand’s; Marizanne Kapp did not travel with the team due to illness but is continuing her rehabilitation at home. Dané van Niekerk, due to an injury to her calf, is also not participating in this series. Anneke Bosch is being used to cover for van Niekerk. South Africa, therefore lacks a reliable, senior all-rounder who can provide a backup for the entire series.Nevertheless, there are still prospects. Annerie Dercksen scored 90 runs off 68 balls in the 2nd ODI versus Pakistan and finished as the leading run-scorer for South Africa with a total of 114 runs (10 matches) during the T20I series versus New Zealand. Ayabonga Khaka led South Africa in T20I wicket-takers with a total of 8 wickets and Masabata Klaas has also re-integrated into the ODI side which gives the seam bowling attack some bite as long as there is enough life left in the ball early on.

This combination creates an opportunity for South Africa to be able to win matches, however, creates a level of uncertainty with exploiting batting because, up until this stage of the tour, they have not shown the ability to recover fully after being 30 runs down for the loss of 2 wickets.

Where may NZ-W vs SA-W 1st ODI Turn

New Zealand’s T20I series against South Africa provided one key indicator – South African bowlers from both teams read pace and length much better than South African bowlers throughout the T20I series. ESPNcricinfo analyst Simon Harler’s analysis showed that South African bowlers bowled back of a length 35 times & conceded 55 runs, while New Zealand bowlers only bowled back of a length 21 times and conceded only 24 runs. They also bowled much slower and effectively executed yorker deliveries once conditions changed. So although it is a different format, the same type of awareness transfers between formats.

From South Africa’s perspective, they have only one tangible marker, & that was the T20I match they won.Tazmin Brits scored 53, Laura Wolvaardt scored 41, Kayla Reyneke scored 28, and Shabnim Ismail took 4 for 27 and conceded 3 for 27 for defeat. South Africa played New Zealand by 18 runs in 2018 and for that reason, have the plan. The blueprint to follow is to make runs with batters to install early pressure with both new ball and left arm spin against the New Zealand batting autopilot and successfully claimed their targets whilst they were still around. The sticky part of the game is seen in the mid-overs where Amelia Kerr is in opposition to Wolvaardt and Nonkululeko Mlaba is running a counter to New Zealand’s right-handed player at the same time as Ismail and Sune Luus are attempting to hold down New Zealand’s scoreboard before Amy Satterthwaite, Suzie Bates or Laura Marshall can start cutting in. No One Day International (ODI) last two to last three overs means that teams will not win if they score 12 runs off the last 12, compared to 20 for the first 10.

Prior to the coin flip

Lastly, prior to the coin flip, some points worth noting:

Prediction

Prediction: New Zealand will enter the field on top form, game plan, and poise. Their recent improvement in ODIs through a clean slate and their continued good bowling as a team has provided a clear picture of Amy Kerr’s performance at the international level where she will continue to score runs or if there are no problems in their innings. Both teams still have pathways to succeed on the 1st ODI. If we manage to hold Laura Wolvaardt (to) at (and/or above) 100 runs at the first half of the innings and if Shabnim Ismail or Nonkululeko Mlaba can remove New Zealand’s top order before Amy Satterthwaite has completed their innings, or if both players manage to stay, then the first innings will feel like it will go on for the entire morning before either team makes their runs seem high.

The most conservative forecast has been confirmed. New Zealand, and by extension, New Zealand Women’s National Team, have the best chance of winning the match against South Africa Women’s National Team. New Zealand Women will again dominate Christchurch when Amy Kerr headlines the otherwise less-than-successful South African T20i run in New Zealand.