White Ferns leave the Australians red faced

New Zealand made the ideal start to their ICC Women's World Cup campaign after beating Australia in a rain-marred encounter at North Sydney Oval. The match was abandoned with Australia 132-6 in the 33rd over chasing New Zealand's 205. Under the Duckworth-Lewis method, the White Ferns were declared winners. The New Zealand pace bowler Kate Pulford, who took 3-32, was named player of the match.

Australia, the pre-tournament favourites and five-times World Cup winners, did well to restrict the Kiwis in the field but batted poorly to throw away any hope of victory. West Indies defeated South Africa by two wickets in their opener in Newcastle after Stafanie Taylor took 4-17 to restrict South Africa to 116. West Indies started their chase poorly losing the openers Taylor and Deandra Dottin for 16 runs.

However, Shanely Daley and Afy Fletcher added 45 in 22.1 overs before Stacy-Ann King and Cordel Jack picked up 38 more in 12 overs to seal the win. South African captain, Sunette Loubser, blamed her team's poor display with the bat for their defeat. "We were a bit lax and we let the match slip out of our grip," she said. "We faced too many balls for little runs and that was our shortcoming and we tried to accelerate, but we lost wickets regularly and that put pressure on the lower order."

* PA Sport