Suzie Bates has announced she will retire from international cricket at the end of the T20 World Cup. Cricket writer Adrian Seconi takes a look back at her favourite knocks.
Clobbering Aussie
‘‘Any time I scored a hundred against Australia was always satisfying,’’ Bates said.
Let us set the scene. Bates had notched a couple of ODI centuries early in her international career, including a blistering 168 off 105 balls against Pakistan during a World Cup game in Sydney in 2009.
But Australia were the benchmark and Bates helped beat them with a classy, undefeated 122 in Sydney in 2012.
Australia had posted 248. Meg Lanning crushed 87 from 71 balls. But Bates whacked 16 fours and a six during her 131-ball onslaught, and she teamed up with Amy Satterthwaite (98 from 85) in a monster 168-run stand for the second wicket to help clinch an eight-wicket win.
Clobbering Aussie take two/three
Bates scored two more ODI hundreds against Australia, including 110 in Mount Maunganui in 2016. Both those knocks were in losing efforts. But any time you can get the better of Ellyse Perry is worth a small celebration.
Bronzed
Bates had not been in great form ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games T20 tournament, but she blasted 91 off 64 balls in the opening game against South Africa to get the campaign off to a positive start. The White Ferns went on to beat England in the bronze medal playoff.
Hit and giggle
Bates has one T20 international century to her name and it was ‘‘just so much fun’’.
She smashed 124 not out off 66 balls in a brutal display at the top of the order. Her old mate Sophie Devine stroked 73 off 48 in a 182-run opening stand during the Tri-Nation T20 series game against South Africa in England in 2018. South Africa were restricted to 150 for six in reply.
The one that started it all
Not long after she had graduated from playing against her brothers in the backyard, and before she had made the White Ferns, Bates pummelled 183 not out for Otago in a one-day game against Auckland at Melville Park in January 2006. It was her maiden list A ton and it remains the joint highest score in the competition. Two months later, she was wandering out to the middle for the White Ferns.
