Australian captain Meg Lanning backs her decision to take Georgia Wareham out of the attack

New Zealand left it to the last over but beat Australia by five wickets in game three of the T20 series at Allan Border Field.

New Zealand players Amelia Kerr (second from right) fist pumps with Australian player Megan Schutt after the White Ferns’ win. Picture: Patrick HAMILTON / AFP)

Australian captain Meg Lanning defended her decision not to give leg-spinner Georgia Wareham her full complement of four overs as New Zealand survived a late scare to win Wednesday’s T20 international at Allan Border Field by five wickets.

Cruising at 3-96 in the 16th over in pursuit of 124 to win, the White Ferns suffered a late collapse as Australia’s seemingly lost hopes of winning the series 3-0 suddenly lifted.

But teenage all-rounder Amelia Kerr, who plays for Brisbane Heat in the WBBL, saved New Zealand with successive boundaries in the last over to secure the visitors a deserved five-wicket win.

Wareham finished with the figures of 2-19 from three overs and her dismissal of New Zealand wicket-keeper Katey Martin for 23 with less than five overs remaining started the Kiwis’ late collapse.

But Lanning opted against giving Wareham her last over, instead turning to Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt and Sophie Molineux to bowl the innings’ remaining overs.

https://twitter.com/WHITE_FERNS/status/1311196743787184128

“I brought her (Wareham) on to get the wicket hopefully and the run-rate got up to eight and a half (needed per over), and I felt like that was a good opportunity to bring ‘Schutter’, ‘JJ’ and Soph back in to try to really close the game down, which they’ve done for us really well over a long period of time,” Lanning said.

“That was the thinking. It was just getting the wicket and trying to squeeze as much as we could.”

Earlier, the Australians struggled to 7-123 from 20 overs after being sent in to bat by the White Ferns.

“We thought it was defendable,” Lanning said.

“In hindsight 10 or 15 more runs would have been extremely difficult to get.

“That was probably the difference. If we’d been able to get 10 or 15 more with the bat we would have been in with a pretty good shot.

“At the halfway mark we were still confident we were in it. We knew we’d have to bowl well but we thought we were in the contest.”

Despite the defeat, the Australians remain confident of returning to winning ways when the three-game one-day international Rose Bowl series between the teams starts on Saturday at Allan Border Field.

“There’s no doubt we would have liked to win today but New Zealand are an extremely good side with world-class players, so we expected them to bounce back,” Lanning said.

“I don’t think it hurts our confidence too much.

“There’s plenty to learn from and improve on but heading into the one-dayers we’re looking forward to it.

“It’s a format that we play well and if we can execute pretty well, then hopefully we can get the result we want.”