T20I Series Loss To Pakistan Is A New Low In White Ferns Woes
Of all the Aotearoa sports teams folks want to complain about, White Ferns seem to escape these complaints despite consistently being worse than Blackcaps, Football Ferns and other franchises. White Ferns hit a new low with their T20I series loss to Pakistan and after losing the first two T20Is, it's highly likely that White Ferns win the third fixture in what is now known as the White Ferns sweep (down 0-2 and win the third game).
All the headlines about this series loss to Pakistan feature coach Ben Sawyer looking for answers, highlighting areas of weakness and doing everything except owning these results. The coach is an important place to start when assessing these woes because White Ferns have somehow got worse under coach Sawyer, something that none of us thought was possible after the horrible home World Cup campaign.
Instead of rallying like Blackcaps, Black Ferns and Football Ferns for World Cups in Aotearoa, White Fern crumbled under the pressure. Bob Carter was the coach then and he oversaw the demise of White Ferns cricket to that World Cup low before being replaced by Sawyer. Then Carter made his triumphant return to White Ferns as assistant coach for this T20I series vs Pakistan.
There is a theme of blokes failing as White Ferns coaches. There is also a theme of coach Carter failing upwards into cozy roles and when chatting White Ferns cricket, the theme of disregarding domestic cricket continues. All of this was on display in two losses against Pakistan and the most concerning aspect of the series defeat was how different wrinkles combined for performances that resembled the 'shook' nature of the World Cup woes.
In home conditions, Aotearoa took nine of a possible 20 wickets. Lea Tahuhu didn't take a wicket in the two losses and was the most expensive White Ferns bowler. The Kerr sisters played one game each and they didn't combine for a wicket either, while Hannah Rowe and Eden Carson took 1w each and conceded over 7rpo. The only bowlers who took wickets while conceding less than 7rpo were Molly Penfold and Fran Jonas, both of whom have struggled for wickets in their respective careers.
'Spin Guru' Craig Howard continues to not be a guru. Despite a good series from Jonas, she has flipped her 13w @ 13avg/4rpo from T20Is last year into 3w @ 61avg/6.8rpo this year. Carson took 1w @ 49avg/7rpo in these two games and she has been less effective this year (20avg/6.3rpo) than she was in T20Is last year (11avg/5.2rpo). The spin guru is helping White Ferns spinners get worse and while the injection of A-Kerr's bowling could have helped, she just finished her worst bowling WBBL and first campaign averaging 30+ with the ball.
Aotearoa's best asset in kiwi conditions is seam bowling. Penfold flashed her talent and showed the value of Aotearoa's seamers, but White Ferns seam bowling struggled to contain the tourists. Devine, Rowe and Tahuhu all operating over 7.5rpo is a fresh development for White Ferns bowling in Aotearoa while J-Kerr is in her first year of T20I bowling conceding more than 7rpo.
Batting? White Ferns scored at 6.3rpo in both games and it didn't matter whether they were batting first or second, Aotearoa couldn't score enough runs. The kiwis also struggled to impose themselves on Pakistan’s bowlers with hitting or control of scoring tempo.
In home conditions, Maddy Green and Rowe were the only White Ferns batters who scored 15+ runs with strike-rates over 100. White Ferns selections have skewed towards athletic and power potential, yet there was a clear lack of batting oomph on home soil. This was led by Suzie Bates (46 runs @ 95sr) and Devine (16 runs @ 72sr), both of whom are Aotearoa's most brutal batters.
Georgia Plimmer (32 runs @ 94sr) and Bernadine Bezuidenhout (15 runs @ 93sr) couldn't pick up slack left by Bates and Devine. A-Kerr caught the White Ferns bug with no wickets and 2 runs @ 25sr in her return to Aotearoa, replacing Kate Anderson in the batting line up. Anderson has entered White Ferns with 62 runs @ 15avg/96sr which like the best players and role-players, isn't enough to lead White Ferns or chime in when required.
White Ferns bowlers were expensive without wickets. The batters were bogged down and couldn't even tick the score over by finding gaps, putting pressure on Pakistan's fielding. Usually White Ferns are better in the field than a team like Pakistan, yet the most damning concern for White Fern is their sloppy mahi in the field. Devine had a crucial miss in the first game, Jonas is a fielding weakness that opponents target, the ball consistently pops out of Bezuidenhout's gloves and Pakistan were the ones putting pressure on Aotearoa's fielding.
Even commentators who have been tremendously positive through these White Ferns woes could feel the ick. Scott Stevenson highlighted how White Ferns 'celebrated' wickets in mellow fashion while Pakistan celebrated wickets like they were in Aotearoa with a point to prove. Unfortunately, none of this is new.
Like the cricketing mahi of runs, wickets and fielding, the White Ferns vibe has been palpable. They genuinely appear to lack confidence which is evident in a lack of enthusiasm, let alone the mana required to endure tough periods. Given how White Fern selections ignore domestic cricket, no one should expect young/emerging players to contribute with fizz, confidence and mana. What's now a far greater issue is how the best players are suffering from the woes too.
Bates has a T20I strike-rate of 104 this year and went through the recent WBBL with 93sr. Meanwhile, Devine has a batting record of 17avg/118sr and bowling record of 38avg/7.6rpo in T20Is this year. This is Devine's second worst year of T20I batting and her two worst years are in the last three years, as well as being her worst year of T20I bowling.
This T20I series loss to Pakistan is not a shock. This is the culmination of White Ferns woes stretching back at least five years and it's intriguing how this new low came on a day of celebration for Suzie Bate in Dunedin. Even in an atmosphere of celebration, with a local hero playing on her home deck, White Ferns found a way to embrace new lows.
A staple of White Ferns woes is how coaches and selections have hindered their progress. Two blokes have been White Ferns coach during this demise and there is little to suggest that Sawyer is any better than Carter. Once again, the teams who lost to Pakistan did not resemble the 11 best cricketers from Aotearoa and domestic cricket has been ignored throughout these woes. While others whip up cozy tales and propaganda, we have identified this demise with lots of receipts to explore...
2021 Talent Identification Deep Dive
2023 ODI Series Loss vs Sri Lanka
2023 ODI Series Loss v South Africa
2023 Great White Ferns Plateau
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