Aotearoa White Ferns vs Australia: Drawn T20I Series!
As the third and final T20I against Australia fell victim to rain, we continue on the journey of trying to figure out what's doing with Aotearoa White Ferns. T20I cricket has been far more productive for the White Ferns compared to ODI cricket and with the ODI series sparking up on Sunday, consider this a bridge between White Ferns battles.
On the surface, being 1-1 with the Aussies is really good. The Ferns lost the first game, then the gritty work of Frances Mackay set up a win in the second game as Mackay snared 2 wickets @ 5rpo and then hit 46 @ 117.95sr with a bung leg; probably the heartiest White Ferns performance of recent years. Within this bubble, there are insights into the foggy decision-making that have plagued the kiwi cricketers.
In two games, Mackay was the best player for Aotearoa. Mackay took 3w in 8 overs to finish this series as the best kiwi bowler and her knock of 49 was good enough to put her second behind Amelia Kerr for kiwi run-scorers. None of which should be surprising as Mackay has dominated domestic cricket for a number of seasons and when selected to play for Aotearoa, Mackay rarely benefits from playing in her best position.
This was the first game of the summer in which Mackay opened the batting for the White Ferns, despite opening the batting for Canterbury. Mackay only played and opened in this game because Sophie Devine was ruled out on game-day and the strangest White Ferns thing from this summer is seeing Hayley Jensen open in every game while genuine openers such as Mackay, Maddy Green, Lauren Down and Kate Ebrahim bat way down the middle order.
Jensen hasn't opened a whole lot for Otago Sparks. In between the England and Australia series, two Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield rounds were played and Jensen opened the first game for a score of 1 before dropping down to the middle order where she scored 11. Jensen is a 1st 11 White Fern and all this weirdness is summed up by having a legit all-rounder who doesn't open, open the batting for Aotearoa while perfectly able openers bat in the lower order.
Since her 53 in the opening ODI vs England, Jensen has not put up a 20+ score in seven games.
The other major issue throughout the England and Australia T20I series is wickets. Mackay wasn't even selected in the T20I series vs England and that's strange in itself, while the best bowler from that series in Leigh Kasperek wasn't selected for this series vs Australia. The two best bowlers from either series, weren't selected for the other series.
Jess Kerr also took 3w vs Australia, with a couple more overs bowled than Mackay. This was considerably better than J-Kerr's 0w in three games vs England and other than these two, no other Ferns bowler took more than 1 wicket. Which brings us to Amelia Kerr...
A-Kerr has been thrusted into greater batting responsibility and it's worked out relatively well. A-Kerr was the second best Ferns run-scorer vs England (57 runs @ 19avg/98.27sr) and then finished as the best kiwi against Australia with 56 runs @ 28avg/90.32sr. All of which appears to be coming at the expense of the best leggy in the world's bowling...
vs England: 12ov, 1w @ 75avg/6.25rpo.
vs Australia: 7ov, 1w @ 60avg/8.57rpo.
The nuance here is that Aotearoa has numerous batswomen who could bat in the top-order and while A-Kerr's proven her worth with the bat, there's no real desperate need for A-Kerr to have such responsibilities. There is a lot more batting depth than the White Ferns make it seem and as A-Kerr is part of a Ferns bowling attack that struggles to contain, let alone dismiss their opponents; another weird ol' selection move.
Sophie Devine in T20I cricket this summer: 7inns, 90 runs @ 12.85avg/85.71sr.
Sophie Devine in ODI cricket this summer: 6inns, 127 runs @ 21.16avg/64.46sr.
Between the England and Australia series, Devine smacked 97 and 74 vs Otago (as she has tended to do this summer). In the White Ferns environment, Devine's work falls of a cliff and remember that Devine finished 3rd in Women's Big Bash League runs with 460 runs @ 51.11avg/126.37sr.
I've tried to stay mellow in writing this and I'm open minded to what the Ferns do in the ODI section of this Aussie tour, especially after the Mackay-led win. Any noise about Devine's captaincy is bonkers, as is the attention placed on the White Ferns best players in a vastly under-performing White Ferns team. As I've consistently noted, for a community that celebrates everything about women's sport, it seems as though many White Ferns observers would rather pull down the wahine athletes rather than ask questions of the blokes making decisions behind the scenes.
Devine missed the second and third T20Is due to fatigue, which shouldn't be surprising given all that Devine does for kiwi cricket and women's cricket around the world. A key theme in the White Ferns woes has been how the hopes of the team depend on a few players and any dip in performance from Devine, A-Kerr, Amy Satterthwaite and Suzie Bates has a strong correlation to losing games.
This is not due to anything these players are doing wrong - form comes and goes. Not only is that the nature of cricket, the best teams in the world have seen a lot of these top-tier White Ferns and place a massive value on keeping them quiet. The issue has and continues to be the supporting cast of White Ferns, which now skews much younger than it has in recent times.
With more pressure on the White Ferns best players and a young supporting cast, it leads straight to losses and plenty of fatigue. I'm still confused about the mission of the White Ferns and my hunch is that now's not the best time to go through a rebuilding phase with major tournaments on the radar. We are seeing this flow into the well-being of Devine. When the captain and senior players are put in this position, they can not be blamed.
Peace and love.