Ask Sara McGlashan what her 100th game means to her and there's laughter on the other end of the phone.
"It just means I'm getting old, I think," the 29-year-old New Zealand cricketer said this morning from England.
The Hawke's Bay-born batsman scored 22 runs before she was bowled out today in their final one-day international against India in Aston Rowant in the NatWest Quadrangular Tournament Series.
Jokes aside, McGlashan felt it was a pretty special occasion to be playing her 100th ODI.
The player, who can also wicketkeep and boasts a fielding arm that is as good as many male players, joins a select elite group of female internationals in the 100 club.
"Obviously it's a special game but the result was very disappointing," McGlsahan lamented, after the Kiwi women lost by 29 runs in the play-off for third and fourth.
While England claimed the ODI title, adding it to their Twenty20 bragging rights a fortnight ago, the White Ferns succumbed twice to the Indians, losing in similar fashion in the T20 play-offs to finish last in both formats.
McGlashan felt the 100th milestone seemed to be a curse for New Zealanders, with both captain Aimee Watkins and Nic Browne also losing in their 100th ODI appearances.
The bowlers did a fantastic job today, especially Kate Broadmore and Sian Ruck," she said after medium pacer Broadmore claimed three wickets off her 10 overs for 33 runs while fast bower Ruck claimed one wicket off her 10 overs, including five maidens, for a miserly nine runs.
"Broady got her personal best so to get them out for 150 was fantastic but [our batting] was really disappointing and it's not the way we wanted to cap off our tour," the Christchurch-based player said, adding it was always ideal to finish a tour on a high note.
It was time for the players to sit back and reflect on how they could change and make improvements.
It wasn't so much a seaming pitch that unsettled them but India's spinners, whose deliveries kept low on the wicket.
"A lot of players didn't play appropriate shots and the only way India would have beaten us was by getting us all out, which they did."
McGlashan saluted Watkins and her Central Districts Hinds skipper who has retired internationally to work in New Plymouth as a teacher.
She was disappointed they couldn't send Watkins off on a higher note to mark the end of a career where she had to juggle women's cricket with a job.
"We're having a barbecue now and will have a few drinks to celebrate tonight," she said.
McGlashan, 29, made her ODI debut in 2002, vividly recalling it was in Holland.
"My brother [T20 international and Northern Districts world record wicketkeeper Peter McGlashan] was playing here [Bath Cricket Club] so it was quite nice," she said.
Coach Gary Stead said before the game: "It's not only her steady middle order batting but her dynamic fielding and the camaraderie she brings to the side. She is well respected and liked."
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