2024 T20 World Cup Winning Notes For New Zealand After Defeating India
The White Ferns started their T20 World Cup campaign with a fabulous win over India, their second T20I win in 14 games this year. Next up is Australia on Wednesday morning and the Aussies probably won't have a stinker like India, so New Zealand need to at least pose a challenge to Australia to maintain their strong start to the tournament.
Ahead of tonight's game which is India vs Pakistan, Aotearoa has the best net-run-rate of all teams at the T20WC. Their 2.9 net-run-rate is a full run ahead of Australia and that means that the White Ferns are the only team with a net-run-rate over 2. That's a teeny-weeny example of how impressive the win was for NZ as they flipped from horrible T20 cricket into a vibrant, confident zone that has been absent for years.
Batting first, NZ scored 160/4 @ 8rpo. This was the fourth game in which White Ferns have scored at 8rpo or higher in 26 T20I outings since the start of 2023, as well as their first game hitting 8rpo in 14 games this year.
Four of the six batters used against India had strike-rates over 130, with Amelia Kerr the only batter who didn't score over 100sr. As a mark of how lacklustre White Ferns hitting has been, this game didn't do much to alter the batting strike-rates in T20Is this year; no White Ferns batter of the 17 players used has a strike-rate over 130.
Same yarn for the bowling. White Ferns conceded 5.36rpo against India and this was their first game conceding less than 7rpo in 14 T20Is this year. In 26 T20Is since the start of 2023, White Ferns have conceded less than 6rpo in four games and they have conceded less than 5.36rpo in just two other games during this period.
The only White Ferns bowlers conceding less than 7rpo this year are Rosemary Mair (6.75rpo) and Suzie Bates (6rpo). Mair has linked up with Lea Tahuhu as the best T20I seamers for Aotearoa this year and the other bowlers with 5+ wickets are spinners...
Amelia Kerr: 15w @ 24avg/7.57rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 13w @ 19.6avg/8rpo
Fran Jonas: 11w @ 26.4avg/7.27rpo
Eden Carson: 9w @ 17.8avg/8.05rpo
Rosemary Mair: 8w @ 23.5avg/6.75rpo
Bates has bowled 1 over in her last 10 games, which came in a warm up game against South Africa. Sophie Devine has bowled in seven of her last 10 games of cricket and doesn't have a wicket, as well as bowling 1 over @ 14rpo in the warm up game vs England.
White Ferns rolled with a tight five of bowlers against India and it didn't include Fran Jonas let alone Brooke Halliday, Devine or Bates. Jonas didn't make the 1st 11 and she didn't play in either of the warm up games, nor did Molly Penfold. Usually everyone gets a crack in warm up games to ... warm up, but Jonas and Penfold didn't bowl despite playing at least two T20Is vs Australia a few weeks ago.
Jess Kerr bowled in both warm up games and played against India, without a wicket in any of these games. This is part of the bigger trend of J-Kerr taking a wicket in her last 10 games (all T20s) and currently sitting on 2w @ 115.5avg/7rpo in 33 overs of T20I bowling this year. At least J-Kerr was economical against India with 3ov @ 4.3rpo, after bowling 3ov @ 5.6rpo against South Africa and 2ov @ 9.5rpo against England in the warm ups.
Another curious wrinkle was the opening partnership where Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer both scored 25+ runs with strike-rates over 110. Plimmer was especially punchy against India and that came after a solid series against Australia in which she played all three games, then she didn't feature in either warm up game.
White Ferns deployed an opening combo of Bates/A-Kerr in both warm up games. Then Plimmer appeared at the top again to start the T20WC and White Ferns won, which along with the absences of Jonas and Penfold, throws up some quirky selection moves that are conveniently overlooked with a win.
The engine room for White Ferns will be a fascinating pocket to track during this tournament. The engine room doesn't include Bates, Devine or A-Kerr because White Ferns lose when other batters aren't contributing. While Devine smacked 57 runs @ 158sr vs India, the work of Plimmer (34 runs @ 147sr), Halliday (16 runs @ 133sr) and Green (5* @ 166sr) planted seeds of how important these players are to White Ferns success.
Izzy Gaze has flashed her talent in recent knocks as well and they will all need to out-perform their T20I mahi this year to keep White Ferns in a winning groove...
Brooke Halliday: 188 runs @ 15.6avg/94sr
Georgia Plimmer: 166 runs @ 16.6avg/100sr
Maddy Green: 153 runs @ 15.3avg/94sr
Izzy Gaze: 138 runs @ 15.3avg/113sr
White Ferns are 2-13 vs Australia in T20Is since the start of 2018. They have lost five consecutive T20Is vs Australia and their last win came on March 30th, 2021 in Napier.
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