White Ferns x Women's World Cup: All She Wrote (WTF)
Hannah Rowe and her young homies showed the vets how it's done.
A Champions Trophy and Women's World Cup, in the same country with the same result for Aotearoa. The major difference between the Blackcaps and White Ferns was that the crappy Blackcaps result was fairly easy to predict given their absence of specific planning for the CT over our summer and weird selection decisions. Compare that to the White Ferns who headed into the World Cup with a collection of the world's best cricketers and a squad that ticked all the boxes.
The Blackcaps lived up to their hype - the opposite of hype? - and the White Ferns were incredibly disappointing. Whatever way you want to twist it, this has been a rather terrible few months for kiwi cricket teams and we're at a point where severe questions may need to be asked.
I'm happy to get dramatic because the way the White Ferns performed in their must-win faux-quarter final against India, sucked. With their World Cup campaign on the line, Aotearoa let India score at 5.3rpo and reach 265/7 off their 50 overs before they were rudely dismissed for 79. They had two games to seal a semi final spot and faltered in both, saving their worst performance of the World Cup for when it mattered most.
The classy Suzie Bates and Amy Satterthwaite were required to lead the Ferns and they epitomised the performance of the Ferns, as did Sophie Devine who was unable to bowl in the last two games. Without Devine's overs, Bates had to step up and after being the most expensive bowler against England (1/51 @ 6.37rpo) she then conceded 7.37rpo off her 8 overs against India. Only Satterthwaite's 2 overs for 15 runs (7.5rpo) was worse.
To identify individuals in the batting innings is pointless as there's no other way to describe it other than crappy. The Ferns have two of the very best batters in the world, a batswoman who hit a record number of sixes and role-playing batters who ooze experience; all in the top-six. So for the top-six to set the Ferns up with 57/6 in the 20th over, is once again crappy. Crappy, crappy, crappy.
Responsibility has to fall on the top-six - who are also the experienced players - thanks to the likes of Hannah Rowe and Leigh Kasperek (3/45 @ 4.5rpo) doing a fine job with the ball. Lea Tahuhu also did her job in taking a wicket and only conceding 4.9rpo, with the work of fellow seamer Rowe worth celebrating. Rowe is just 20-years-old and came in for Holly Huddleston (who took a 5-for in the first game), taking 2/30 @ 3rpo in the biggest cricket game of her life and along with Tahuhu's wicket, they had India 21/2 in the 8th over.
Amelia Kerr took 4/51 @ 5.66rpo against England and you can forgive Kerr for saving her first wicket-less effort of this World Cup for such a contest. Kerr wouldn't want it to be that way and she was building nicely throughout the tournament, chipping in with wickets in the first four games (1,2,1,2) before taking 4 against England. It's an almighty task for a teenager to continue such form in high-pressured game like this, especially when her more senior comrades did the opposite.
I don't know what the future holds for the likes of Bates, Satterthwaite, Devine, Rachel Priest, Katey Martin and Katie Perkins. If they want to play on to the next World Cup and can continue to demand selection, they'd be leading a team that has it's younger team members in their prime years. There should be positivity around that as Kerr, Rowe, Kasperek and Maddy Green all worked their way into this World Cup team despite their inexperience and they're only going to get better.
For now we've got to let the dust settle (after the upcoming tribute to ODI centurion Amy Satterthwatite). This World Cup started with a few solid performances and after dominating weaker opposition in swashbucklin' fashion, Aotearoa was royally put in their place by cricket's traditional power-houses. We pride ourselves on punching above our weight - which is a great example of how amazing our country is at sport - so results like this always come with a splash of perspective. It's a lot harder to take though, when you save your worst performance for those clutch moments.
Food for thought: why have our national cricket teams failed in major tournaments?
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