Compared to previous Kiwi-WBBL campaigns, the 2020 version is looking a lot like 2020 itself and considering that many of these White Ferns recently lost their Rose Bowl and T20I series vs Australia, it's all a bit stink. Every WBBL team has played five games and both Sydney teams (Stars and Sixers) have three wins, although neither team has any kiwis and then the Melbourne Stars are next best with two wins and again, no kiwis.

A low key cool thing about this WBBL tournament is that veteran White Fern Katey Martin has been doing commentary. To be fair, that's probably the best aspect of this WBBL campaign after five games and as an admirer of how Australia loves women's sport, seeing Martin involved in quality women's cricket coverage is great to see.

On the field though, nothing's doing. There has been a splash of funk with Katie Perkins, Lauren Down and Rosemary Mair all getting game time as replacement players, leaving Holly Huddleston and Hayley Jensen as the only kiwis who are left to play. Perkins hasn't added to her game back on October 26th where she didn't bat, Down has played two games for Perth Scorchers and didn't bat in the first game then scored 3, while Mair has palyed one game for Melbourne Stars that was impacted by rain and then played for Melbourne Renegades where she scored 2 runs and bowled 2 overs for 4rpo with no wickets.

Correct: Mair has played a game for both Melbourne teams in just over a week. That's possible via the replacement player set up and for someone like Mair, plugging a hole in two teams isn't a big issue and it would only get weird if a more high profile player impacted games for two different teams.

While it's great to see Perkins, Down and Mair all dabble in WBBL cricket, there isn't much to dive into as far as these three contributing with runs or wickets. That vibe rolls through the more high profile kiwis as well and where kiwis have dominated previous WBBL tournaments, this summer there's a slightly concerning extension of the plateau that has hit Aotearoa women's cricket. Slightly concerning because we are only five games into WBBL and there is plenty of time for players to find some form, plus Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu are currently out injured so they may come back and perform strongly.

Here are the stats for all the kiwis...

Sophie Devine

4inns, 64 runs @ 21.33avg/91.42sr.

9ov, 2w @ 34.50avg/7.66rpo.

Rachel Priest

4inns, 50 runs @ 16.66avg/106.38sr.

Maddy Green

4inns, 44 runs @ 11avg/97.77sr.

Amelia Kerr

2inns, 21 runs @ 10.50avg/72.41sr

10.3ov, 1w @ 57avg/5.42rpo.

Amy Satterthwaite

3inns, 28 runs @ 9.33avg/59.57sr.

1ov, 1w @ 11avg/11rpo.

The most pressing issue is that there are five kiwis, all of whom are rather nifty with the bat and Devine is the only player who is averaging over 20 and Priest is the only player with a strike-rate over 100. Devine and Priest are the only kiwis with 50+ runs, while 22 total players have 50+ runs and there are seven players with 100+ runs. The woes aren't just in the lack of kiwis near the top of the run-scoring charts, there's plenty of niggle in the fact that Green, Kerr and Satterthwaite are ... well Satterthwaite is averaging 9.33 and that's weird.

Kerr at least is batting in the middle order for Brisbane Heat, although a strike-rate of 72.41 isn't exactly swashbuckling and as defending champions, the Heat have so far shown little to suggest they'll be a factor in the finals this time around. The Heat are 1-2 from their five games with a couple no results, while the Thunder, Sixers and Stars have not lost a game to go with their no results.

Green is opening for the Heat and having followed the White Ferns closely in recent years, there's a rather emphatic trend being established with Green. Green has a T20I batting average of 11.66 after a low key busy 51 games since 2012, of which Green has batted in 40 innings and Green has no 50+ scores in those 40 T20I innings.

In the recent T20I series vs Australia, Green scored 22 runs @ 7.33/66.66sr.

A couple weeks later and Green has 44 runs @ 11avg/97.7ssr in the WBBL. At least the strike-rate is tapping 100 in the WBBL and I don't want to be too downbuzz here, it's super strange though that there is a player with 50 T20I games, averaging 11.66 and while Green made her T20I debut way back in 2012, she doesn't appear to have made improvements with greater comfort in the international arena; Green has averaged below 15 in five of her past six T20I series.

Kerr's bowling isn't quite doing the job either, with four WBBL games played and no wickets in her last three outings. This is after Kerr took 3w in three games vs Australia, which isn't so bad by itself but when packaged alongside the WBBL; Kerr has taken 4w in her last seven T20 games.

Ideally, the tournament flips around for the kiwis and there is no further escalation of a generally concerning trend for the White Ferns and thus the kiwis in WBBL. There's another double-whammy weekend coming up with games on both days, followed by another mid-week stint and if the weather gods approve, this will provide a decent buffer for next week's check in.

I spotted this yarn via Cricket AU that highlighted Australia's emerging fast bowlers. In women's cricket, anything over 120km/h is quick and Lea Tahuhu has been one of the world's leading fast bowlers in the past decade or so as she is always bumping the 120km/h mark. According to Cricket AU, there are three up and coming Aussies who have topped the 120km/h mark in WBBL in Darcie Brown, Stella Campbell and Maitlan Brown, to go with injured Aussie international Tayla Vlaeminck.

That's just in Australia and this will be the major area of growth in women's cricket over the next few years as more wahine get involved around the world. Aotearoa is still very much in the kiwi medium-pacer mode with their bowling stocks, making me curious as to what possibilities are out there for finding athletes who want to bowl fast. Otherwise, we may see Aotearoa move in the other direction to how international matters are trending and that's already the case as far as performances are going.

Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache.

Peace and love.