New Zealand picked the wrong time to suffer their first international women's cricket defeat to the West Indies.

The White Ferns were comfortably beaten, by seven wickets with two overs to spare, in their opening match of the women's Twenty20 World Cup at Galle, Sri Lanka, overnight (NZT) and now must beat South Africa tomorrow and the hosts on Sunday to have any chance of progressing to the semifinals.

New Zealand had a combined record of five wins and two no-results from previous Twenty20 and one-day internationals against the Windies but were wary of the threat posed by the big improvers in women's cricket. As it transpired, they were right to be concerned.

Aside from a brief period at the start of both innings, New Zealand were outplayed on every level and must regroup quickly to beat South Africa, who were six-wicket winners against Sri Lanka after chasing down the hosts' 79 all out with three overs to spare.

New Zealand made a swift start with captain Suzie Bates and Amy Satterthwaite putting on 37 runs for the opening wicket in less than five overs. But the West Indies' decision to introduce spin yielded immediate dividends with the loss of regular wickets.

Bates' 32 from 34 balls was the only score about 15 as the Ferns crawled to 117-9 from their 20 overs.

That total looked a lot healthier when the Windies fell to 5-2 after two overs, with spinner Erin Bermingham picking up two wickets in her first over, but Deandra Dottin and world ODI player of the year Stafanie Taylor combined for an 82-run third-wicket partnership that sealed the result.

Dottin, the only woman with an international T20 century to her name, brought up her fifth T20I half-century off just 36 balls and struck six fours and two sixes in her unbeaten 58.

SHORT SCOREBOARD

New Zealand 117-9 off 20 overs (Suzie Bates 32; Anisa Mohammed 2-17, Shemaine Campbell 2-22, Stafanie Taylor 2-29) lost to West Indies 118-3 off 18 overs (Deandra Dottin 58 not out, Stafanie Taylor 35; Erin Bermingham 2-18) by seven wickets

- © Fairfax NZ News