New Zealand crush Ireland again

After their world record total in the last match, New Zealand were once again in attacking form with opening pair Sophie Devine and Jess Watkin putting on 74 runs off nine overs.

Watkin was again in fine form before she miscued Gaby Lewis's first ball and was caught at backward square leg by Rachel Delaney for 23 runs (24 balls; 4 x fours).

With the arrival at the crease of Maddy Green, the scoring rate was increased further and the White Ferns put on a second wicket partnership of 97 from 45 balls.

Devine was in imperious form, bringing up her fourth career century off 59 balls, before falling shortly after for 108 (61 balls; 13 x fours, 6 x sixes).

Once more there was no let up, as captain Satterthwaite joined Green and the pair put on a 64-run stand from 43 balls, before Green - just after bringing up her half-century - skied a ball to long-on where a running Shauna Kavanagh claimed the catch.

While the bowling performance throughout had improved since the last match on Friday, the visitors continued to punish anything short or too full, with boundaries being hit at regular intervals.

One bit of Irish interest towards the end of the innings was the partnership of Anna Peterson (46 runs off 36 balls; 5 x fours, 1 x six) and Kate Ebrahim (17 runs off 16 balls; 2 x fours). Both players having spent time playing club cricket in Ireland - Peterson at the YMCA Cricket Club and Ebrahim (nee Broadmore) at Clontarf Cricket Club.

With the fall of the final wicket from the second last ball of the 50 overs, Ireland's 17-year old pace bowler Lara Maritz provided a welcome spark by finishing with career-best figures of 4-58.

In only her fourth WODI appearance, Maritz had bowled well in the face of tough attacking batting, and deserved her four scalps.

The final New Zealand total of 418 from 49.5 overs - the first time a team has scored consecutive ODI totals of over 400 runs.

The Ireland response got off to a shaky start losing opener Mary Waldron on the second ball, before Cecelia Joyce and Lewis put on a confident partnership of 29 runs in 28 balls, before Lewis edged White Ferns opening pace bowler Holly Huddleston out for 8 runs.

Joyce was then joined by skipper Laura Delany who steadied the ship and set about pushing the Irish score beyond 50 without a false shot.

However, with the score on 55 opener Joyce played a firm shot to cover and was caught by a diving Maddy Green - out for 26 (38 balls; 5 x fours).

After a subsequent 32-run stand between Delany and Shauna Kavanagh was ended, the Irish resistance was broken with the final six Irish wickets falling for 25 runs.

Captain Delany top-scored for the second match in a row, falling to a good caught-and-bowled effort by fast bowler Lea Tahuhu on 33 (70 balls; 2 x fours).

Speaking after the game, Laura Delany said: "Playing against the fourth best side in the world was always going to be a tricky time for us - but coming back from Friday's result, we came out today and took 10 wickets, which was a huge bonus.

"We've got a young bowling attack - four out of our five main bowlers are 17 or younger - so we concentrated today on the small wins. Getting the ball in a certain area, bowling our stock balls well. To be honest we still bowled far too many bad balls and against a side like this they just put it away.

"Over coming days we'll look at a few things - particularly looking at how we can create more wicket-taking opportunities. And with the bat, we're not being too threatened really. Tahuhu is obviously quick and not what we're used to, but we're getting ourselves out too much. Against a quality side, this is all a learning curve and we'll work on these areas over coming days.

"I'm really happy for Lara today taking four wickets today. We started with a plan, it didn't work at the beginning, so we changed things up and she executed the new plan brilliantly. It was a tough day on Friday for her, but she came back well and I'm delighted. She's only 17 years of age, and to bowl like that against a quality opposition like New Zealand, hats off to her today."

Lara Maritz, who took career-best figures today, said: "Coming from the other days match, which was tough, you have to be brave and work hard every single ball. Today I really took my time and managed to bowl where I wanted to bowl.

"If I bowled a bad ball I felt determined to come back from it. The support of the team was incredible - Cecelia particularly kept telling me to be brave and be confident I could take wickets."