Melie Kerr hat-trick highlights White Ferns’ ODI thumping of Zimbabwe in Dunedin
Wednesday, 11 March 2026
ODI, Dunedin: New Zealand 303-6 (Maddy Green 94 from 73 balls, Melie Kerr 80 from 106, Brooke Halliday 40 from 40; Christabel Chatonzwa 2-48 from nine overs) beat Zimbabwe 103 all out in 27.1 overs (Loreen Tshuma 34 from 41 balls, Kerr 5-22 from 3.1 overs) by 200 runs. Click here for full scoreboard.
Zimbabwe will leave these shores hoping that six successive drubbings by the White Ferns may yet be worthy in future years.
The visitors lost the final match of their tour by 200 runs in an ODI in Dunedin on Wednesday, with New Zealand captain Melie Kerr’s hat-trick accelerating the end of the encounter.
That result came after defeats in the other two 50-over games by 180 runs and eight wickets. They were swept in the prior T20I series by 92 runs, 110 runs and 10 wickets.
But at the University of Otago Oval, they showed enough spirit with the ball at least to suggest that one of the minnows of women’s cricket will learn and benefit from the mismatches.
Recent history could also be a pointer for them.
When the White Ferns played a three-game ODI series against Ireland in 2018, the hosts were defeated by margins of 347, 306 and 305 runs.
In the latter encounter, Kerr made 232no from 145 balls - the highest score in women's ODIs, making the 17-year-old the youngest double-centurion, male or female, across formats - and then took 5-17 with the ball.
Ireland were so shell-shocked, they lost their next ODI to Zimbabwe. But last year, they defeated Zimbabwe by 97 runs and four wickets in two matches, and earlier this year they qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup and will be in the same group as the White Ferns at the tournament in England in June and July.
On Wednesday, Zimbabwe employed a well-stocked offside field, and had their seamers mostly bowling to it after an early surfeit of wides.
That restricted opener Emma McLeod to a stodgy 16 from 29 balls, and Kerr should have been stumped when on 36 before making 80 from 106 balls.
Midway through the innings, Zimbabwe’s bowlers had yet to concede an over in double figure runs, before Maddy Green began to dominate on her way to 94 from 73 deliveries.
Captain Nomvelo Sibanda showed plenty of courage to shrug off a right ankle injury occurred when trying to stop a boundary in the 34th over, and her run out of Brooke Halliday (40 from as many deliveries) was followed by Green falling next ball to give them a bump.
Chasing was never reality for Zimbabwe when they batted. They got to 39 before their second wicket fell, but Kerr’s leg-spin and googly gave her three consecutive wickets in the 24th over.
The White Ferns will face a sterner challenge when they begin another white-ball series against South Africa in Tauranga on Sunday.