White Fern Sarah Tsukigawa plays big hand against The West Indies

Twenty seven year old Dunedin School Teacher , Sarah Tsukigawa top scored for The White Ferns with 41 not out in their second round ICC WOMEN'S WORLD CUP aginst The West Indies.

She responded in the best possible way when her team had got off to a tardy start against the much lower ranked West Indian side.

Batting at 8, Tsukigawa hit her 41 off just 35 deliveries, an innings that included five boundaries and a six through mid wicket to help her side to 192/8 after 50 0vers.

Tsukigawa came in with The White Fern score at 104/6 in the 38th over and her partnerships with Aimee Mason and Rachel Priest were invaluable in setting a challenge for the West Indies and earning her The Player of the Match Award.

On her innings today ,Tsukigawa said her instructions when she went into bat were to "'get herself in and wait for the batting Power Play' which was due in the 45th over.

She said her batting highlight was getting the boundaries towards the end of the innings, bonus runs because she felt the West Indian bowlers for once in the innings had loosened up and there was a bit of width to work with.

As for the six she hit in the match , Tsukigawa was keen to downplay the shot admiting only that she 'got a decent slog/sweep in at an off spinner'.

She currently is 19th on the ICC International Batting Rankings.

Sarah Tsukigawa said a lot of the credit for today's competitive match must go to The West Indies side, she said they bowled fantastically well, very disciplined in their line, very straight and the opening bowlers particularly gave their all in having The White Ferns 85/4 from twenty overs.

The conditions at The Bankstown Oval were very dewey for the 10-00am start and it took longer for that moisture to burn off, Tsukigawa said the wicket was a bit low and slow, but by the time the West Indies batted , the pitch played much quicker.

For this reason Tsukigawa was happy, despite being wicketless, with her bowling return, 0/14 off 8, she said she had to work hard for every dot ball and tried to tie the batsman up early in her spell.

She said the momentum is building nicely for The White Ferns at This World Cup, but echoed White Fern Coach Gary Stead's comments, that they know they have quite a few areas to improve on for the remaining matches.

The White Ferns tomorrow will travel to Bowral and prepare for Thursday's match with South Africa at The Bradman Oval.