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Kate Cross has stressed the importance of England women’s opening three games against New Zealand.

Charlotte Edwards’ side face the White Ferns tonight at the Bay Oval in Tauranga in the first of five one-day internationals.

And with the first three matches counting towards the ICC Women’s Championship, pace bowler Cross says England will be eyeing a good start, especially after a big 233 run warm-up win against Northern Districts Women.

“I think they’re the three games we want to win and need to win,” said the 23-year-old.

“I think it’s quite good that they’re the first three games because we can really put everything into it; maybe in the last three games there might be some fatigue coming into it.

“We’ve not played a game since the summer so its going to be really good to get back out there and play some competitive cricket.”

Tonight’s match will be the women side’s first international outing since their Twenty20 win against South Africa on September 7, and Cross can’t wait to get back into action.

“It’s great being able to put your England jersey on and go out and play a game for England,” Cross told ecb.co.uk.

“We’ve not done that since the summer and thankfully the weather is a bit better than it was back in the summer in England – we’re really looking forward to getting back out there.”

England will be hoping to strike lucky tonight and you can too with the latest cricket betting odds.