England 142 for 2 (Bouchier 100*) beat New Zealand 141 (A Kerr 43, Ecclestone 5-25) by eight wickets
England sealed their domination of New Zealand via Maia Bouchier's maiden international century and Sophie Ecclestone's five-wicket haul to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three match ODI series.
Ecclestone's 5 for 25 from nine overs was instrumental in bowling New Zealand out for a sub-par total for the second game in a row - this time they were bundled out for 141 in 41.5 overs - and Bouchier saw England home with 25.3 overs to spare.
Only four New Zealand batters, led by Amelia Kerr's 43, reached double figures, but, as in the opening match of the series in Durham when they were all out for 156, it didn't look like nearly enough. England's bowlers kept New Zealand hemmed in, sending down 10 maidens between them, and Amelia faced 10 deliveries in seven overs for her last three runs.
Early incisions by Kate Cross and Lauren Filer had New Zealand floundering at 10 for 2 in the sixth over.
Ecclestone was introduced to the attack in the 12th over but it wasn't until the 18th that she broke a sedate partnership of 46 in 72 balls between Sophie Devine and Amelia, her beautifully flighted delivery luring Devine well down the pitch, then dipping and turning to beat the bat as Amy Jones whipped off the bails.
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Maddy Green had faced 28 balls for her four runs before doubling her score by lofting the penultimate ball of Cross' allocation to long-on. Green had reached 30 off 48 when Charlie Dean pinned her on the pad with one that turned sharply from outside off stump to end a 58-run stand with Kerr.
Her dismissal brought Brooke Halliday to the crease, the standout performer with her half-century in an otherwise poor display by New Zealand's batters in their nine-wicket defeat last Wednesday. But Halliday couldn't repeat her innings after she was undone on 6 attempting to sweep an Ecclestone delivery, which clattered into off stump.
Ecclestone made it two wickets in four balls and three for the match when, next over, she bowled Lauren Down for a duck with an excellent ball that turned past the bat and crashed into the top of middle stump. That ended Down's first international appearance since giving birth to daughter Ruby in January before it had begun.
Amelia faced 86 balls for her score, passing 2000 career ODI runs in the process, but her innings was otherwise uneventful, her dismissal via a return catch to Dean coming amid a collapse of seven wickets for 27 runs in 10.4 overs. During that time, Ecclestone also removed Izzy Gaze and Molly Penfold.
It was Alice Capsey who took the last wicket when she had Jess Kerr caught slog-sweeping to deep midwicket by Nat Sciver-Brunt for 14 with only her fifth delivery of the day.
Tammy Beaumont survived New Zealand's review when she was adjudged not out lbw on the first ball of the run-chase, Jess striking the pad with one that moved in but was shown to be tracking down the leg side.
As in Durham, Beaumont and Bouchier broke the back of the target, this time via a 73-run partnership in 80 balls. Bouchier took charge here, even more so once Beaumont was run-out by the finest of margins for 28. Bouchier struck Amelia to cover, where Suzie Bates gathered and threw the ball back to the bowler to catch Beaumont short despite the dive.
Bouchier was on 42 at the time but unfurled five boundaries in eight balls in the aftermath of Beaumont's dismissal, four of them off one Devine over. She smashed another off Amelia through the leg side moments before Heather Knight despatched Halliday for the only six of the match, over deep square leg. Knight perished on 9, spooning Halliday straight to Amelia at midwicket.
Bouchier was on 92 when she was given not out attempting to pull a Jess delivery, which rapped the back pad low down and New Zealand's review was turned down on umpire's call, keeping the century on the table.
Bouchier skied the next ball and it dropped short of long-off as she and Sciver-Brunt scampered two and two singles took her past her previous best, 95, scored in the third ODI against Sri Lanka last September.
With four more runs needed to win, Sciver-Brunt blocked the remaining four balls of Penfold's over - one of them a full toss - to give Bouchier the strike. Bouchier tucked Jess' first delivery to backward square leg and ran two more. Then, after a dot ball prodded towards point, Bouchier struck the next into the space through midwicket and took off for the two runs she needed to reach her ton and complete England's victory.
