White Ferns Tour of England: Suzie Bates is back!
Aotearoa's White Ferns played a 50-over warm up game against England 'A' overnight and this was their first fixture of the England tour. While we are getting used to the 'same old' daily vibe of current lockdown situations, this warm up game had a 'same old' vibe that is of greater concern and follows on in similar fashion to England's tour of Aotearoa last summer. Praise Papatuanuku and Ranginui though as Suzie Bates bounced back into the White Ferns after an injury absence, leading the kiwi cricketers with a knock of 70 in the opening slot.
Bates' 70 and a knock of 52 down the order from wicket-keeper Katey Martin boosted the Ferns tally up to 223. Martin scored her 52 runs off 56 balls, while Lauren Down chimed in with 29 at #3 and seamer Jess Kerr was the only Fern to score with a strike-rate over 100 as she cracked 19 off 15 balls.
England weren't fussed about that though as they cruised to 226/6 in 47.4 overs. In typical warm up game styles, Aotearoa used nine different bowlers with Hannah Rowe and Amy Satterthwaite the only kiwis to take wickets. Rowe took 2w @ 4.57rpo while Satterthwaite took 2w @ 5rpo with a couple run-outs rounding things off.
The two new players to the Ferns both had a trundle. Molly Penfold bowled 3 overs @ 11rpo and Claudia Green bowled 6 overs @ 6rpo, with Penfold conceding 6 wides and 2 no balls and Green conceding 4 wides with a no ball. Considering that Penfold has barely settled into Aotearoa domestic cricket, this shouldn't be surprising and as explored in this yarn about the Development Contracts; how these two perform in England will be fascinating given their lack of development contracts and also a lack of domestic experience.
Three key things from this game that fit into the wider WF context...
Hayley Jensen was promoted to open the batting against England and Australia, despite not really doing that much for Otago Sparks in domestic cricket. In her 6inns of ODI cricket earlier this year, Jensen scored 102 runs @ 17avg/68sr and her 5inns of T20I cricket resulted in 42 runs @ 8.40avg/66.66sr. Against England 'A' Jensen was dismissed first ball, stuck in concrete against an out-swinger...
Jensen is a talented cricketer, worthy of 1st 11 status in either format as an all-rounder. Her status as an opening batswoman is a bit baffling though as it clearly didn't work in Aotearoa vs England and Australia and opening the innings against swing bowling is tricky. The idea here may be that Jensen's a powerful hitter (hence she's good down the order) and yet her strike-rates from last summer were both below 70.
Another thing is the lack of wickets. Here's the tally of wickets taken by WF bowlers vs England and Australia in home conditions last summer with the N/A being a washed out T20I...
vs England: 2, 3, 10, 3, 4, 9.
vs Australia: 4, 4, N/A, 4, 7, 7.
That's 11 games completed and Aotearoa dismissed their opponents once, taking 7+ wickets in four games. Against England 'A' overnight, the kiwis took 4 wickets and they'll need to pose a far greater threat against England than they have been.
The last thing is the reliance on Bates, Satterthwaite and Sophie Devine. This was on display overnight as Bates hit 70 and Martin was the only other player to score 30+. Satterthwaite hit 3 runs and Devine hit 6 runs.
It's unrealistic to expect these three to dominate every game as they are targets, with a heavy focus on their wickets by opposition. The common thread throughout WF woes has been the lack of development in the supporting cast, all of which still appears to be present. Given her absence last summer and her return overnight, Bates is the most solid of the big three.
Satterthwaite is solid in ODI cricket, averaging 30+ for the last three years and she hit a century earlier this year. T20I cricket is less productive for Satterthwaite, which is usually off-set by Devine's dominance in T20I cricket. Prior to taking a break, Devine churned out 27 runs from 4inns of T20I cricket earlier this year and her 6.75avg in 2021 is an obvious drop off from 50+ in the two years prior.
Devine scored 37 runs @ 12.33avg in 3inns of ODI cricket earlier this year and her ODI mahi has been trending downwards since a monstrous 2018. Given that Devine was in the midst of her worst stretch of cricket in either format, it wasn't a surprise that she took a break from WF cricket mid-summer. Devine didn't have any form entering the England tour and didn't start too flash overnight, so her contributions will be a key thing moving forward.
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