An 8th ODI hundred for Sophie Devine, brought up with a 6 off the final ball of the game, gave New Zealand victory in the final T20 at Hamilton.

Although New Zealand had already lost the series 2-1, they will take consolation from two crucial ICC Championship points, which could well be the difference between direct entry to the World Cup in India and having to schlep off to a qualifying tournament. Having drawn the short-straw of missing out on playing thus-far-winless Ireland (every team “skips” one of the 9 possible opponents) New Zealand are currently evens, having won 8 games and lost 8, with 2 no-results. However, their last two series are against Australia and India, so there is a good chance that they will finish on 18. I’ve not run the Alligator analysis software on the Championship table – with so many games remaining, it would take several days to run – but my guess is that 18 points will… just… be enough.

New Zealand’s win was assisted by a vintage England collapse, after England had chosen to bat first, presumably with the intention of proving something. And to be fair, they did prove something – just not the thing that Heather Knight would have had in mind when she won the toss.

England didn’t get the ideal start, but these things happen, and Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt had rebuilt to 82-2 by the end of the 17th over. Just 6 overs later, they were 95-6, having lost 4 wickets for 13 runs. Sciver-Brunt was first to go, holing out trying to accelerate her strike rate; but, again, these things happen – you will lose wickets, but the key is to not let 1 turn into 2 turn into 4. And that is exactly what England did.

Dunkley failed to move her feet and ended up playing the ball she hoped she was going to get, not the one she actually got, which was a pretty regulation delivery on off stump; Wyatt tried to sweep a full toss without accounting for the fact that Amelia Kerr might not get much turn if she doesn’t pitch it, but she will still get plenty of dip; and finally Knight was run out by a couple of inches after momentarily ruminating on a quick single.

Knight wasn’t happy with Amy Jones, but England have drilled themselves to grab these sharp singles, to the point where it is an instinct thing, and the run was there if Knight hadn’t taken that fraction of a second to procrastinate.

It was left to Jones and Charlie Dean once again to salvage something from the sinking ship, and for the second time in the series they did that; although it came to a somewhat disappointing end when Jones was guided straight into a trap, with a big neon sign above it saying “Trap”, by Suzie Bates and Eden Carson both wearing t-shirts with “Welcome To Our Trap!” written on them.

Dean did sterling work once again at No. 8, holding up her end while Amy Jones went at a run-a-ball at the other, to take England to within walking distance of respectability. It is taking nothing away from Dean in this series however, to point out that anyone suggesting that England should push her further up the order after this, needs to put their glasses on and read the scorecard. Scores of 38 off 64 balls (today) and 42 off 70 (in the first ODI) are what England needed from her in that role, but they aren’t strike rates that are going to cut it at the top levels of international cricket these days, and as soon as Dean tried to accelerate today she signed her own death warrant. Dean might yet become a top 6 ODI batter – at the same age (23) Tammy Beaumont was averaging 18, with a highest score of 44, and still 3 years away from her breakthrough summer of 2016 – so Dean has time… but she is not there yet.

Thanks to Jones and Dean, England got close to the 200 that might have been enough had Sophie Devine not put on the Ritz with a perfectly timed century. Devine is closing in on 35 years young, but still averaging 55 in ODIs in the past 12 months; and while she’s smashing 6s on decent boundaries like she did today, who knows how long she can go on?

Devine was one of the very first “professionals” – prior to the first KSL in 2016, at a glamorous (really!) launch party in Manchester (really-really!), Raf and I went around all the players in the room asking them what their favorite Nandos was. (It was for a piece… we aren’t that socially awkward… well… Raf isn’t, anyway!) Most said chicken, a couple said salad. Sophie Devine said: “I’m a professional athlete – I don’t eat that s***!” And yet in a strange sort of a way, Devine has also ended up becoming one of the very last “amateurs” – those who keep playing above-all because it’s fun. And for that, you can’t not love her. Even if you’re England today.