Australia batting depth is 'scary'

Rival countries should be afraid of Australia's ultra-deep batting line-up, spearhead Megan Schutt says.

Australia clinched a T20 series win over New Zealand with a six-wicket victory at Brisbane's Allan Border Field on Monday, with half-centuries to Alyssa Healy and Elyse Villani seeing the hosts take an unassailable 2-0 lead with a game to play.

Incredibly, the world's No.1 ranked ODI batter Ellyse Perry comes in at No.7 in Australia's T20 line-up, while even captain Meg Lanning is content to bat herself at No.5 behind the big-hitting quartet of Healy, Villani, Beth Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner.

And behind Perry comes allrounders Delissa Kimmince and Sophie Molineux.

"It's such a deep batting order and that's something we really pride ourselves on," Schutt said after play on Monday.

"To have Pez there at No.7 is almost relieving and I think it's something other people would be scared of, our batting line-up."

Healy led the Australian run chase on Monday with a powerful knock of 57 from 41 deliveries. It continued what's been a breakout 12-month period for the 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batter.

She became the fourth Australian woman to pass 1000 T20I runs during her innings at Allan Border Field, while her half-century was her first in the format since 2012.

Having cemented her place at the top of the order alongside Mooney, Schutt said that consistency had Healy thriving against the new ball.

"I think it's confidence, she's whacked the Strikers around a fair bit when she's been in Sixers colours unfortunately," Schutt said.

"But it's awesome and really heartwarming being in Aussie colours and seeing her do that.

"It's something I knew she's been working on, so for her to go out there and do it is really special.

"When she's on she's incredible and I think that's the way she needs to come out and play, fearlessly.

"That opening batting role is something that really suits her, with two (fielders) out to begin with and she gets on a roll from there and it's lovely to watch."

Asked how she would go about trying to combat Australia's long batting line-up, veteran New Zealand opener Suzie Bates joked: "We might think about asking for a trade, she could probably bat up the order in our team."

But she also pointed out that Australia's aggressive, hard-hitting approach could also create opportunities for rival bowlers.

"The thing about their team is you know they're going to provide opportunities because they're going to go hard," Bates said.

"That's kind of exciting as well. In the first game we had them four-down early and you take another wicket and you're right in there.

"So that's the nature of their team but we think as well if we can score enough runs against their bowling attack we're going to be able to put their batters under more pressure."

Australia and New Zealand will travel to Canberra on Tuesday, where they'll have several days to prepare for Friday's third and final match of the Commonwealth Bank T20I series at Manuka Oval.

CommBank T20 INTLs v NZ 

September 29: Australia win by six wickets

October 1: Second T20I, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

October 5: Third T20I, Manuka Oval, Canberra

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham

New Zealand squad: Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Sophie Devine, Kate Ebrahim, Maddy Green, Holly Huddleston, Hayley Jensen, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Katey Martin, Amy Satterthwaite (c), Lea Tahuhu, Jess Watkin