Same Old White Ferns In T20I Series Win vs Sri Lanka
The White Ferns tour of Sri Lanka finished with a T20I series win as Aotearoa won the first two games to wrap up the series, then Chamari Athapaththu went bonkers in the third T20I to lead Sri Lanka to victory. White Ferns lost the ODI series 1-2 and that portion of the tour was covered in this ODI series debrief, now winning the T20I series 2-1.
These results are aligned with how White Ferns perform in either format. White Ferns lost the ODI series and that fits into their 13-23 ODI record since January 1st 2020. With a T20I record of 22-17 in this period, White Ferns are better in T20I cricket and their power was good enough to grab back to back wins.
Across the whole tour, the team bowling first won five of the six games. White Ferns restricted Sri Lanka to scores below 120 in the first two T20Is which set up victories, then Sri Lanka cruised to victory in the third game batting second. The tour can also be split between games in which Athapaththu went bonkers and games she didn't.
Athapaththu hit centuries in the ODIs that Sri Lanka won (248 runs @ 151sr) and with the T20I series lost, Athapaththu whacked 80* @ 146sr to seal the win. Athapaththu was the only Sri Lanka batter with 90+ runs in the ODIs, while she was the only Sri Lankan to register a 50+ score in the T20I phase.
Suzie Bates was the leading run-scorer for White Ferns with 133 runs @ 44avg/96sr and Amelia Kerr was the other notable batter with 81 runs @ 40.5avg/108sr. Sophie Devine had a nifty knock in the third T20I, scoring 46 of her 51 runs with an overall strike-rate of 159. These three were the only kiwis to score 50+ runs, while Kerr and Devine were the only batters with strike-rates over 100.
Lea Tahuhu was the best bowler with 4w @ 8.5avg/5.6rpo. Eden Carson continues to emerge as the best White Ferns spinner with 3w @ 22avg/6rpo. Leigh Kasperek and Kerr took 2w each, as Kerr and Carson were the only kiwis to bowl 10+ overs.
This is the usual White Ferns recipe. The best Aotearoa players are good enough to defeat teams with similar or weaker talent, especially in T20I cricket where they best players can do most of the mahi. The lack of role-playing contributions in ODI cricket has plagued White Ferns for over five years. This is a key thread that flows in the T20I mixer as there is a concerning lack of development which is still evident despite more resources training.
Unfortunately the same crop of players who struggled in the ODI series didn't do much in the T20I phase. There is small sample size theatre to note, although the struggles or lack of development stretch back before this tour. Brooke Halliday scored 2 runs in her lone T20I innings vs Sri Lanka and along with her lack of ODI runs, Halliday has two knocks of 20+ runs in her 14 T20I innings for an average of 11.5.
Fran Jonas took 1w @ 86avg/6.2rpo in the ODIs vs Sri Lanka and then bowled 6 overs @ 6rpo without a wicket. After a lovely start to her T20I career (18.8avg/4.7rpo), Jonas has 1w @ 89avg/6.8rpo in 13ov this year. That includes 1w @ 53avg/7.5rpo in the T20 World Cup and Jonas has seven games for Aotearoa without a wicket in her last 10 outings.
Molly Penfold was only used for one game in each series of the Sri Lankan tour, bowling 3ov @ 9.6rpo in the ODIs followed by 1.3ov @ 18.6rpo. None of this seems like a productive development process and yet Penfold continues to struggle to snare wickets. Penfold has now played three T20I games with 5.3ov @ 9.8rpo and this is aligned with Penfold taking 11w @ 43.7avg/7rpo in her T20 domestic career.
While it's clear that Penfold needs consistent repititions in domestic cricket and White Ferns continue to ignore domestic mahi, these players are rarely put in positions to succeed. When selected, Penfold gets sporadic opportunities and because she is not an experienced bowler, it's hard for Penfold to impact games with such random usage.
Rosemary Mair didn't play a game of this tour. Mair has experience and 1st 11 White Ferns talent, especially in T20I cricket. Conditions didn't suit the kiwi seamers but Mair could have got overs ahead of Penfold, Hannah Rowe (3ov @ 9.6rpo), Devine (4ov @ 5.5rpo) or Halliday (3ov @ 5.3rpo) in the T20Is vs Sri Lanka.
In keeping with the disregard for domestic cricket, Mair was selected for this tour after taking 4w @ 48avg/7.11rpo in last summer's Super Smash and 6w @ 43.3avg/4.4rpo. None of that is demanding White Ferns selection and along with Penfold's lack of domestic mahi, there does not appear to be any connection between domestic performances and White Ferns selection.
The wicket-keeping situation made little sense prior to this tour and continues to confuse. Bernadine Bezuidenhout played the first two T20I games in Sri Lanka with 28 runs @ 14avg/87sr, after scoring 42 runs @ 14avg in the ODI leg. Bezuidenhout has the highest T20I strike-rate for White Ferns batters this year (131sr) and yet she doesn't score enough runs to warrant consistent selection.
Izzy Gaze was thrown into the third T20I game and scored 13 runs @ 93sr. Gaze is representing Aotearoa with a List-A average of 8.9 and T20 average of 11.8, having played less than 30 games in either format at the domestic level. This obviously doesn't prepare a player for international cricket and Gaze is averaging under 13 for White Ferns.
Most importantly though, Gaze doesn't look like the best wicket-keeper in Aotearoa. At least Bezuidenhout is an attacking batter to absorb any sloppy wicket-keeping mahi. The ball always seems to bounce out of Gaze's gloves and things generally appear untidy when she is playing. Meanwhile Jess McFadyen has ample domestic experience with run-scoring domination and despite being good enough to make previous White Ferns squads, McFadyen was shuffled out late last summer.
Skipper Devine offers one last nugget. One of the best T20 batters in the world has 70 runs @ 14avg/111sr this year in T20I cricket and that includes her knock in the last T20I vs Sri Lanka. Devine has dipped below 20avg in two of the last three years and this is her first year without a wicket in T20Is since 2013 when she didn't register an over for White Ferns. Devine has three T20I ducks this year which is the same number of fours and sixes she has hit.
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