The Australian Team Start World Cup Championship Defense with Triumph

Women's World Cup match in Indore

Australia scored 326 runs (49.3 overs): Gardner made 115 from 83 deliveries; Tahuhu 3-42

New Zealand 237 all out (43.2 overs): Devine 112 (112); Molineux claimed 3 wickets for 26 runs

Australia won by 89 runs

Ash Gardner delivered a magnificent century from the lower order as Australia started the defense of their World Cup championship with an 89-run victory over New Zealand in Indore.

The all-rounder enabled her team recover after they fell to 128-5, making 115 runs off 83 deliveries as the multiple-time title holders piled up 326.

The White Ferns skipper Devine scored a determined hundred of her own after arriving at the crease with her side at zero for two, and briefly threatened to guide the New Zealand team to a extraordinary victory.

She struck twelve boundaries and three maximums in her run-a-ball 112, but was the first of three wickets to fall in Annabel Sutherland's the 43rd over as the Australian side snuffed out any hope of an opening defeat.

Phoebe Litchfield gave Australia a rapid beginning after Healy won the coin toss and opted to bat first, firing a 45 from 31 balls as they achieved 81 for one at the end of the first powerplay.

However the 22-year-old was dismissed by Kerr with the first ball of the eleventh over, and Australia's charge slowed until Gardner came to the crease.

Coming in at the sixth position, the all-rounder marshalled collaborations of 64 and 69 with McGrath and Alana King, before being caught behind off Illing.

The New Zealand captain's knock started slowly as she rebuilt with a 75-run partnership with Kerr, but she increased the tempo as her team arrived at the 42-over mark requiring 91 runs.

However Sutherland bowled the veteran all-rounder to trigger a rapid end to the match, with New Zealand suffering their last four wickets for just two runs to be bowled out with 40 balls remaining.