2022 Commonwealth Games: White Ferns Review
Throughout niggly White Ferns woes, Aotearoa's wahine cricket team were always good at T20I cricket and their bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games reflects White Ferns T20I prowess. Having lost their final pool game against England and then losing to Australia in the semi-final, defeating England in a rematch for a medal saw the kiwis finish their tournament with all sorts of lovely vibes.
The easiest thing to observe is how White Ferns flipped their World Cup campaign into finishing third at this T20I tournament. This overlooks the fact that White Ferns were far better at T20I cricket than ODI cricket under the previous coach and these two formats should be viewed in through different goggles. This was on display prior to the World Cup, yet many ignored a losing ODI record in favour of World Cup hype.
Since the start of 2018 up until the World Cup, Aotearoa had a 20-19 record in T20I cricket and a 10-22 record in ODI cricket. There have been a bunch of changes to the T20I squad from their last series against England prior to the World Cup and those changes, plus a bronze medal do little to signal any great change in White Ferns cricket.
Aotearoa's T20I success comes via the best T20I cricketer in the world Sophie Devine. Devine is 4th for T20I runs all-time and 7th for T20I wickets, which was evident in recent weeks as Devine finished as the leading run-scorer and second best bowler for White Ferns in Birmingham. Devine is a legendary T20I cricketer, perhaps the best wahine T20I cricketer ever and Devine is also a winner who leads the Wellington Blaze dynasty as well as coming off a Women's Big Bash League championship with Perth Scorchers.
The mere presence of Devine in T20I cricket, gives Aotearoa an edge. Suzie Bates was the only other kiwi to score 100+ runs at the T20I tournament and Bates just happens to be first for T20I runs, making Bates the greatest T20I wahine batter ever. Bates and Devine sit among the elite T20I cricketers and have done for a while now which is where a winning T20I record stems from. Combine that with lots of T20 experience around the world for elite T20I players and leaders.
There were other positive flashes from this tournament as Fran Jonas played her role nicely, continuing to develop with accuracy and guile. Hayley Jensen's wickets were crucial as well and Amelia Kerr is as good at batting or fielding as she is bowling leggies. After the sludge of recent White Ferns woes, the contrast in emotions is notable and yet there is a loitering idea of not much changing that sets up future White Ferns mahi.
Take Jensen for example. Jensen took 7w @ 14.28avg/5.35rpo in Birmingham and that looks like a significant change, although Jensen was also really good at the T20 World Cup in 2020 where she took 7w @ 10.42avg/5.21rpo and finished as the best kiwi bowler. Jensen is statistically a far better T20I bowler (23.13avg) than she is an ODI bowler (36.20avg) and rolled out the same slick mahi from the last T20 World Cup, yet it feels completely different because of a bronze medal.
This goes the other way as well with role-players struggling to contribute consistently, which is an issue that has plagued White Ferns for a while now. The fact that Devine and Bates are so dominant that others are barely required to bat is fabulous and along with Kerr, they were the only kiwis to bat in all five games. It's rude to judge others from their one or two opportunities, however there are insights to be gained from wider trends.
Maddy Green has a T20I batting average of 12.52 after 52inns and that's not because she's slugging boundaries from ball tahi (91sr). In her 3innings at the Comm Games, Green had scores of 9, 19 and 2 to wind up with a 10avg/83.33sr combo. Green does not have a T20I score over 30 and while that's good enough to seal a WBBL gig, her recent mahi was the same as her career mahi.
Brooke Halliday also batted three times in Birmingham with scores of 22, 1 and 16. Solid, better than Green and Halliday now averages 14 in T20I cricket. Halliday and Green both look good when batting, capable of getting a start and generating momentum through an innings. Neither has dominated international bowling attacks and they seem to find ways to get out despite getting a start. None of which should be surprising when Green has been doing that since her T20I debut in 2012 and Halliday earned White Ferns T20I selection with a T20 career record of 14.62avg/88sr from 69 games.
These wrinkles exist throughout the White Ferns squad and whether it's maintaining a solid T20I record or the low baseline to earn selection, everything from the past few years was evident in this Commonwealth Games campaign. Winning a medal is fun, especially for wahine such as Devine and Bates. Young players will also benefit form this experience. The reality is that the only difference is the emotions, working through World Cup pain to the joy of a Commonwealth Games bronze medal.
All the White Ferns trends from the post World Cup wash up still exist, good and bad. For those who love wahine cricket and understand the nuance of this sport in Aotearoa, this provides immense intrigue for the summer of domestic cricket. The emotions of this campaign suggest a funky start to this new era but everything was fairly similar to the past five-six years and genuine learning will be done across the summer. A bunch of White Ferns in this bronze-medal winning squad have not dominated domestic cricket, let alone done anything noteworthy and the opportunity to build on this campaign lays ahead of them.
The same idea applies to players outside this White Ferns squad who were overlooked for selection and contracts. These players could wind up being the dominant players this summer and demand selection at the higher level. Ideally this brings us to a place where Aotearoa’s best wahine cricketers are in White Ferns squads to give them the best chance of success.
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Peace and love.