White Ferns In UAE: Pakistan ODI Series Wrap + Sophie Devine's Form
Dunno what else to say. Shout out women's cricket though. We out here. Major keys.
After doing the business in the first two ODIs against Pakistan, Aotearoa then collapsed in the third and final ODI, taking a 2-1 series win into the T20 series. The first two T20 games have been fairly easy wins for the White Ferns and while I'm going to wait until the T20 series is wrapped up to debrief performances and line up decisions from coach Haidee Tiffin, I'm going to highlight a fairly glorious patch of form that Sophie Devine has found herself in.
As you Niche Cache White Ferns fans will know, Devine came into this tour of UAE fresh off a century for South Australia in Australia's women's one-day competition. This came after a fairly mediocre T20 Super League campaign for Devine and she then went back to back with centuries, hitting 103 in the first ODI vs Pakistan. After this came a knock of 62 in the second ODI and then guess what; Devine's only score below 40 in this tour came in the third ODI loss.
Devine wasn't even undone by a brilliant piece of bowling, she was instead run out for 2 and the White Ferns tend not to lose too many games when Devine, Suzie Bates and Amy Satterthwaite all put up single-digit scores. Moving into the T20 series has been a breeze for Devine as she has scores of 41 (141.37sr) and 70 (159.09sr), meaning that Devine has scores of 103, 62, 2, 41 and 70 so far in the UAE. Chuck in a century before this tour and you've got a rampant Devine, which is a scary sight for any bowler given that when Devine is scoring runs, she's scoring them quickly; her T20 strike-rates are exceptional and she had the highest strike-rate of any batter in the ODI series (98.23).
The ODI series only featured one other 40+ score with Sam Curtis hitting 50 in the third ODI - Curtis got the call up in the last ODI and has since been selected in both T20 games -and although Bates was the second-best in runs for Aotearoa, she had a top-score of just 36 (24.33avg). Satterthwaite wasn't much better with a top-score of 25* and while this isn't ideal, it's merely an example of the talent in the White Ferns team as a player like Devine can dominate to such an extent that she is carrying the batting unit.
There were so low key contributions from Maddy Green that can't be slept on though. Green was given the No.5 duties and you can only love such consistency in selection for a young player like Green, who has been the main benefactor of Rachel Priest being left out of this squad. That's another wrinkle of funk as Devine's only opening in the ODI team because Priest isn't there and with Devine's usual middle order spot vacant, Green got the gig.
With scores of 22, 10* and 26, Green didn't set the series on fire, but regular contributions in foreign conditions is a nice jumping-off point for the youngin'. Especially when you consider that she's got an ODI batting average of 13.38 and her series average was 29. That's a product of Green getting limited opportunities down the order for Aotearoa via the dominance of the big-three and now that Green enjoyed more time in the middle, she showcased promising signs.
What intrigues me the most about the bowling side of things was who contributed the most in terms of overs and efficiency. It's fairly obvious to point out that the spinners would lead this and this was a great series for Amelia Kerr to stack up overs, get in-game reps and she's at the top of the list with 29.3 overs. Leigh Kasperek's there as well with 29 overs and then Anna Peterson had 18 overs, which didn't leave too much room for Satterthwaite's tweakers as she was only required for 6.5 overs.
The seamers though offer some funk and veteran seamer Lea Tahuhu didn't enjoy the same efficiency as the younger seamers. Tahuhu bowled 15.1 overs and only took a single wicket, while Thamsyn Newton only took 2 wickets, but enjoyed greater opportunities than she's previously had with 16 overs in two games. Hannah Rowe also chimed in with 11 overs and took 3 wickets, while Holly Huddleston only played one ODI but bowled her full 10 overs and took 2 wickets.
This differs to how the Ferns have operated in recent years and understandably, we are seeing younger bowlers get more chances. Understandably because it's right after the World Cup and they are playing against a slightly weaker opposition in conditions that the youngsters need experience in. Bates' usual overs went to Newton and Rowe, while Satterthwaite's handy overs of spin have been snapped up by Kerr, Kasperek and Bermingham. Then you've got the fact that Newton, Huddleston and Rowe were more efficient than Tahuhu; we're seeing a White Ferns squad start to come together with more varied contributions.
Well, with the ball any way as Devine is in cracking form with the bat. Even then, we saw Green chime in with nifty runs and as this is a slow-cooked process, those minor tweaks in terms of team selection and contributions will pay dividends in the future.
Peace and love 27.
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