Unfortunately for the White Ferns, the third and final T20 between Australia and Aotearoa went to the same script as the the first two games in which Australia cruised to victory. The only difference for the third T20 was that Australia gave the White Ferns even more of a hiding than they had previously. Losing with a major tournament on the horizon such as World T20 isn't a terrible spot for the Ferns to be in as they can rally behind this series sweep to make drastic improvements, although confidence must be reasonably low in the White Ferns camp.

Had this series been in isolation, I'd make a stronger case for the White Ferns being in an ok-ish position for World T20 as they'll be better for the experience. However, this Ferns group has a poor record in major tournaments recently and prior to this Aussie excursion, Aotearoa lost all three of their T20s vs England by decent margins; 54 runs, 7 wickets and 7 wickets.

The Ferns did beat up South Africa in that T20 tri-series, but against better opposition in England and Australia, the kiwis have been made to look sloppy. In all three games vs Australia, the Ferns batted first and their performances simply got worse as they managed 162/5 in the first game, 145/8 in the second and were then bowled out for 103 in the third game on Friday.

NZ skipper Amy Satterthwaite was bitterly disappointed with her team's efforts in the third and final Twenty20 clash against Australia

Australia chased down 103 easily, losing just 1 wicket on their way to 105/1 in swift 12.3 overs. While signs of life with the bat were evident in the first two games, Aotearoa took a mediocre 9 wickets in three games; 4w, 4w and 1w. This is the biggest area of concern for the White Ferns as they have undisputed class in their batting line up and despite being unable to combine as a batting group for a comprehensive innings, different players scored runs and we'd all hope that the experience in the batting line up rises to the World T20 occasion.

Two reasonably important bowlers for the Ferns were missing in action during this series vs Australia. Amelia Kerr took 1w @ 9.94rpo in 5.5 overs and Lea Tahuhu took 1w @ 8.33rpo in 9ov, both played in all three games and bowled in all three games, however they didn't get through many overs because of their ineffectiveness.

Leigh Kasperek also struggled to sustain her wicket-taking efficiency, taking just 2w in 6ov @ 8.83rpo and Kasperek was dropped for the final game. Sophie Devine on the other hand, was awesome with the ball during the T20 Super Blast in England and kept that momentum in Australia as the leading bowler for the White Ferns; 4w in 11ov @ 6.45rpo.

The lack of support for Devine, who also opens the batting and can't be relied on to be the chief-destroyer wiht the ball, is reason to be cautious ahead of the World T20. Suzie Bates bowled in two games and didn't take a wicket in 4ov, Hayley Jensen bowled in two games and didn't take a wicket in 6.4ov, while Jess Watkin bowled 3.3ov in two games and didn't take a wicket either.

Seamers Holly Huddleston and Kate Ebrahim came into the team for the third game, for their first taste of action in the series and were smoked for 11.50rpo and 10rpo respectively.

Batting was better than the bowling, not by much though. The major positive from the whole series was Katey Martin, who led the White Ferns in runs with 94 runs @ 125.33sr.

Bates was second for the Ferns with 91 runs in 3inns, via her knock of 77 in the second game and while it's cool to see Bates, Devine and Satterthwaite leading the kiwi batters with runs, this was no where near what the White Ferns need from the big three. All three had one decent innings, mediocrity in the other two and when the Ferns do have such a reliance on Bate, Devine and Satterthwaite to score runs, they need to do exactly that or they lose.

They lose because no one else scores runs and they can't take wickets to defend a small total.

Maddy Green scored 27 runs from 3inns. Bernadette Bezuidenhout scored 23 runs from 3inns and Watkin, who was promoted to bat #3 in the first two games managed just 20 runs from 3inns. Again, reflecting on the T20 tri-series vs England and South Africa on top of this Australian series makes for kinda horrible vibes.

Bates and Devine were the only kiwi batters in the top-10 run-scorers over in England.

Satterthwaite hasn't scored 50+ in a T20 International this year (7inns) and more horribly; Satterthwaite averaged 14.33 in Australia and 19.33 in England.

Green has a top-score of 23 in 36 T20I, averaging 9 in Australia (3inns) and 11 in England (3inns).

Watkin averaged 10.50 in England and 6.66 in Australia.

I could go on, but I'll leave you with a semi-positive vibe as Anna Peterson wasn't in this squad for the Australia leg but will feature at the World T20. Peterson adds another spinner to the bowling line up, most importantly though, Peterson will boost the experience of the White Ferns bowling attack. That's a nice addition, not a game-changer to a White Ferns team that got thoroughly smoked in all aspects of T20 cricket by Australia, but nice.

Hit an ad to support the White Ferns content.

Or jump on Patreon and support the Niche Cache directly, we drop bonus stuff for the Patrons and take care of the homies.

Peace and love 27.