(Feb 6th) In today's remaining round robin matches, New Zealand played Australia while India took on England in what is a preview of the finals.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. They were dismissed for 174 in the final over. They were always on the back after the dangerous Rebecca Rolls was dismissed for 1, lbw Cathryn Fitzpatrick while in form captain Emily Drumm was out for 8, caught Michelle Goszko bowled Fitzpatrick.

Maia Lewis top scored with 43 while Aimee Mason (33 off 37) and Michelle Lynch (28). New Zealand's last 5 wickets fell for 27 runs, all bowled.

Cathryn Fitzpatrick has picked up her 3rd career ODI 5 wicket haul, her 1st against New Zealand, to finish with the figures of 5/27. Emma Twining also picked up her best figures for Australia, taking 3/31 off 9 while Julie Hayes was the other wickettaker with 1/24 off 10.

Australia went in hot pursuit with the first wicket falling in the 27th over at 128 (a new 1st wicket record in ODIs for NZ). Captain Belinda Clark was out bowled by Rebecca Steele for 67, just 3 runs short of becoming only the second woman to reach 4000 ODI runs. A minor stumble saw 3 more wickets fall for 37 runs before Mel Jones and Alex Blackwell saw the team home off the last ball of the 40th over.

Clark's opening partner Lisa Sthalekar brought up her 3rd ODI 50 of the series (and her career) before she was out third out, caught behind for 53.

Steele was the only bowler to make any impression finishing with 2/29 off 10. Kate Pulford was the only other wickettaker with 1/50 off 10.

Australia have now retained the Rose Bowl and go into Saturday's final with a psychological advantage.

In the other match, India won the toss and sent England in. England has shown much better form with the bat to top 200 for the first time in the series. They made 4/208 with Charlotte Edwards leading the way, remaining unbeaten on 79 from 92 balls. She combined with Arran Thompson (38 off 44) to put on 98 for the 4th wicket in only 15.3 overs. They were well supported by Sarah Collyer and Kathryn Leng opened the batting, making 33 and 22 respectively.

David was the best of the Indian bowlers with 1/20 off 10 while Al Khadeer took 1/45 off 10 and Kanojia took 1/23 off 3.

In a thrilling fashion, England took the last 6 wickets for 23 runs in 37 balls to win by 1 run. Mithali Raj was the backbone of the Indian innings with 98 off 126 balls, receiving support from Kala with 38 off 45 and captain Chopra 26 off 31.

The turning point was the run out of Raj by Lucy Pearson with the score on 201. 13 balls remained with 8 needed for victory with 3 wickets in hand. Sarah Collyer (2/35) and captain Clare Connor (2/39) bowled the remaining overs, remaining calm enough to see their team to victory. Pearson, Harper and Holden each took one wicket.

(Feb 4th) Australia have won their second last round match with 22 overs and 9 wickets to spare.

After a promising start, India has staggered to 7/134 off their 50 overs. Seven batters reached double figures with only one (Captain Anjum Chopra - 25 off 84) passing 20. Next "best" was Naik with 18 off 27 and Rumeli Dhar 16 off 73. Sundries (19) was the second biggest contributor!

An opening parternship of 48 seemed to be leading the Indians to a defendable target but no other partnership passed 20 as the Indians showed no inclination to attack the bowling.

Seven bowlers were used with Alex Blackwell and Clea Smith both picking up two wickets while Emma Twining and Lisa Sthalekar picked up one each.

Set a target of 135, Australia made steady progress before captain Belinda Clark was dismissed lbw for 49 off 68, when the score was on 96 in the 22nd over.

The remaining runs were scored in only 6.4 overs as Lisa Sthalekar made her second 50 for Australia (58* off 80) and Karen Rolton hit a rapid 21* off 21 balls. Rolton finished the match with a four off the last ball of the 28th over.

All teams have a rest day tomorrow before the final round of matches on Thursday - this will be a preview of the play off for 3rd and the final as Australia takes on New Zealand and India plays England.

(Jan 28th) Australia have defeated England with 63 balls and 7 wickets to spare to secure maximum points in their second match and maintain top position as the only undefeated team.

Australia made one change to their side that beat New Zealand - Alex Blackwell becomes the 97th player to play ODIs for Australia and the 167th player to represent Australia at senior level (in either ODIs or tests). Blackwell replace last game debutant Kris Britt.

Australia have restricted England to 8/156 off their 50 overs after England won the toss and elected to bat.

Top scorer was Claire Taylor with 35 off 50. Others to reach double figures were Clare Connor 29 off 49, Laura Newton 18 off 62, Sarah Collyer 12 off 19, Charlotte Edwards 12 off 35, Arran Thompson 11 off 64 and Laura Harper 10* off 6.

England looked well placed to post a reasonable score but lost 5/34 off the last 8.3 overs - 3 of these wickets were to run outs. Overall, half of the wickets to fall were to run outs.

The biggest partnership of the innings was 43 for the 4th wicket between Newton and Connor.

Four bowlers took one wicket apiece - Emma Twining 1/19 off 8, Julie Hayes 1/21 off 9, Clea Smith 1/25 off 7 and Cathryn Fitzpatrick 1/28 off 10. Fitzpatrick has now moved to 98 ODI wickets (the most in women's ODI cricket).

In reply to England's 8/156, Michelle Goszko (34*) hit the winning run off the 3rd ball of the 39th over. Goszko combined with Karen Rolton (68*) for 71 runs to see Australia home.

Lisa Sthalekar was first to go when the score was 5, caught behind off Lucy Pearson for 4. Captain Belinda Clark made 23 off 46 balls before she was caught by Clare Taylor off the bowling of Laura Harper. The only other wicket to fall was Mel Jones (8) also caught by Taylor off Harper.

Harper finished with 2/31 off 10 while Pearson took 1/32 off 10.

Tomorrow England takes on New Zealand.

(Jan 26th) Australia opened their World Series account with a 63 run victory over New Zealand on Australia Day.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Kris Britt became the 96th player to play ODis for Australia and the 166th player to represent Australia at senior level (in either ODIs or tests).

The mainstay of the innings was a typically quickfire 86 runs off 84 balls by vice captian Karen Rolton. Her innings included 11 4s and 1 6 and she combined with Lisa Sthalekar to put on 123 runs for the second wicket. This innings saw Rolton become the 2nd Australia to pass 2000 runs in ODIs.

Sthalekar was dismissed for 59, her highest score in ODIs. A 45 run unbroken partnership between Julie Hayes (20*, her highest score in ODIs) and Cathryn Fitzpatrick (15*) saw Australia post a competitive 6/223.

King took 4/24 off her 10 overs while debutant Green took the wicket of Belinda Clark (8) for 39 runs and Drumm took 1/35 off 8.

New Zealand never really got going in their chase with their biggest partnership being 59 for the 3rd wicket, between Payne (36) and Pulford (30). Lewis remained 33 not out as the Kiwis faltered to 9/160.

Rolton backed up to take 2/17 (making her the 7th Australian bowler to reach 50 ODI wickets), Hayes 2/21 off 10, Emma Twining 2/37 and Fitzpatrick 2/38.

Yesterday, India (4/89) beat England (86) by 6 wickets. Today New Zealand take on India while tomorrow Australia play England.

Australia has an outstanding record in one day cricket with 115 wins and 1 tie from 145 matches (79.7%). Against each country, Australia's record is equally outstanding - 42 wins from 62 matches versus New Zealand (67.7%); 24 wins and 1 tie from 32 matches versus England (76.6%); and 11 wins from 12 matches versus India (91.7%). In fact, Australia hasn't lost to England since the '93 World Cup (a streak of 14 victories) and to India since 1995 (although they have only played them twice since then!)

In comparison, New Zealand's one day record stands at 85 wins and 2 ties from 148 matches (58.1%), England 78 wins and 2 ties from 145 matches (54.5%) and India 37 wins and 1 tie from 77 matches (48.7%).

95 players have represented Australia at one day level - 3 players will be added to that list by the completion of the tour (Alex Blackwell, Kris Britt and Melissa Bulow). NB: 165 players have represented Australia at one day and/or test level.

The longest serving player in the side is captain Belinda Clark with 82 appearances after making her debut at Bellerive Oval in January 1991. Three other players in the side have played 60 or more matches - Cathryn Fitzpatrick (61), Karen Rolton (60) and Julia Price (60).

Since Clark assumed the role of captain in 1994, Australia has won 54 matches out of 65. Clark (3734) may well pass 4000 ODI runs (she may even catch the world's leading runscorer, Debbie Hockley on 4064) while the dynamic Rolton (1987) will pass 2000. Fitzpatrick (95) should become the first women to pass 100 ODI wickets while Rolton (48) should also pass 50 (the 7th Australian to do so).

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