White Ferns In Australia: The Squad
If anyone was wondering about Aotearoa's wahine cricket depth, the recent NZC Development Contracts and White Ferns squad named to play in Australia lay it all out for our cricketing pleasure. I served up the basic information on those Development Contracts and while I was pondering which of those players would earn a White Ferns call up next, the fact that those promotions came from outside the development players only showcases the depth further.
Later this month the White Ferns will face Australia for three T20I and three ODI games, all to be played in Brisbane. This will be the first major White Ferns cricket since the T20 World Cup and that tournament reflecting where the White Ferns sit in women's international cricket as the Ferns were solid, yet lacked the quality to genuinely push the best nations. That's been the general vibe for the last few years and while there's always been plenty of hope that the kiwis would take over a major tournament via their potential, it hasn't quite eventuated.
Having veteran Amy Satterthwaite back may help that. Satterthwaite took time away from the game to have a child with wife Lea Tahuhu and now Satterthwaite returns to add to her 119 ODIs and 99 T20Is. Also returning to the squad is Central District's Jess Watkin who last played in 2018, while Wellington leggy Deanna Doughty gets her first call up to the White Ferns after dominating the domestic circuit for a few seasons.
Satterthwaite's inclusion is notable as along with Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine, the form to holy trinity of White Ferns batting. Having just Bates and Devine is all good, but as we saw in the T20 World Cup, the Ferns need as many high-quality batswomen as possible to push the likes of Australia. The work of these three throughout their respective careers has perhaps established a veil of performance where consistent big scores are the status-quo and yet cricket's a beast that can snip away form at any time; Bates scored 48 runs in 4inns at the T20 World Cup to average 12/81.35sr.
Bates’ struggle and veteran opener Rachel Priest averaging 15/88.23 in a T20 tournament is always going to keep a lid on White Ferns performances. Priest has now retired into the Australia domestic circuit, in theory replaced by Satterthwaite and the Ferns have at the very least, the three best kiwi batswomen ever in the same team once again.
Natalie Dodd is a low key inclusion to keep an eye on and like Watkin she hasn't played an international game since 2018. Dodd finished 5th in one-day runs last summer, averaging 48.12/56.95sr for Central Districts and 8th in Super Smash runs (30.33avg/98.55sr), providing more batting depth along with Watkin and a bit of wicket-keeper cover.
Watkin had a strong summer last season, finishing 5th in one-day runs (42.77avg/102.66sr) and 6th in Super Smash runs (27.50avg/152.77sr). Watkin was the only player in the top-10 one-day runs with a strike-rate over 100 and in the Super Smash, Devine was the only other batswoman to score 100+ runs with a strike-rate of 150+.
Chuck in some handy offies and Watkin's will cover numerous selection bases for the Ferns, especially as regular spinners Leigh Kasperek and Anna Peterson were unavailable for selection. That's where this gets super funky as Doughty's promotion is thoroughly deserved, although you might not know about it because Wellington have another handy leggy in Amelia Kerr who has been as dominant. Ponder these Doughty stats...
2017 Super Smash
4th in wickets, 13w @ 12.92avg/5.09rpo.
2018 Super Smash
2nd in wickets, 13w @ 13.53avg/4.88rpo.
2019 Super Smash
3rd in wickets, 17w @ 12.76avg/5.83rpo.
In 2017 Doughty had a better Super Smash campaign than Kerr, then in 2018 Kerr was the only bowler with a better record than Doughty and 2019 saw Wellington snap up the top-three bowling spots with Jess Kerr in the top spot, then Amelia and then Doughty. Throughout those years the Ferns have got great value out of Kerr, Kasperek and Peterson, so it's understandable that Doughty didn't get an opportunity and now, we wait to see what Doughty does with this opportunity.
One thing that has low key held the White Ferns back in recent years has been the jump between Aotearoa domestic cricket and international cricket where the quality has exploded over the past five years. Amelia Kerr is one of the few kiwis who has had a swift impact in the international arena, while others have struggled to contribute and that's left too much of the burden on the likes of Bates, Devine and Satterthwaite. Doughty is an interesting case study for the difference between domestic cricket and international cricket, or more to the point; domestic cricket vs Australia.
Sliding back to the T20 World Cup for context, here are the best White Ferns performers from the T20 World Cup
Runs
Sophie Devine: 7th, 132 runs @ 44avg/103.93sr.
Maddy Green: 16th, 92 runs @ 23avg/112.19sr.
Katey Martin: 22nd, 7 runs @ 36avg/128.57sr.
Wickets
Hayley Jensen: 6th, 8w @ 10.42avg/5.21rpo.
Amelia Kerr: 9th, 6w @ 12.33avg/4.62rpo.
Leigh Kasperek: 16th, 5w @ 20avg/6.31rpo.
The White Ferns narrowly missed out on semi-final cricket at the T20 World Cup and that came after a weird series vs South Africa in Aotearoa as South Africa won all three ODI games rather easily, then the kiwis won three of the four T20I games played. No kiwi bowler took more than 2 wickets in the ODI series, while Bates led the kiwis for runs and in the T20I series Amelia Kerr led all bowlers and Devine led all run-scorers.
With T20I and ODI games vs Australia, this series will provide an interesting gauge-point of the White Ferns coming off a long period of not much. Australia is obviously in a similar position and once again, this is a talented White Ferns squad that has a high ceiling in either format and given the quality in the squad there's always a decent chance of winning games against the world's best.
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Peace and love.