The New Zealand A women's cricket team went down 1-5 to England A across both formats and there were many intriguing performances from the kiwi outfit that can bolster White Ferns depth. Including England A's tour of Aotearoa in 2024, NZ-A has a 3-9 record in the one-dayers and T20s combined, which could be viewed as a negative given that NZ-A won the one-day series in 2024 before losing all three List-A games this time around.

NZ-A's only win in England was the second T20 game. Despite the losses, most of the games were lost by reasonably close margins and for many in the squad this was their first dose of high level cricket overseas so development was key.

1st OD: Lost by 6 runs
2nd OD: Lost by 2 runs
3rd OD: Lost by 6 wickets - 146 balls remaining
1st T20: Lost by 10 runs
2nd T20: Won by 8 wickets - 9 balls remaining
3rd T20: Lost by 6 wickets - 2 balls remaining

Two batters scored 100+ runs in the LA section in Georgia Plimmer and Bella James. Plimmer hit a century for most of her 114 runs, while James was one of three other batters who had one 50+ score along with Izzy Gaze and Flora Devonshire.

Bree Illing was the best NZ-A bowler in the LA games by a significant margin. She finished with 6 wickets and was the only Aotearoa bowler to take more than 3w, with Jess Watkin finishing next best with the ball on 3w.

Plimmer had the only NZ-A 50+ score in the T20 series and that made her the only kiwi batter with a 50+ knock in both formats. Watkin and Gaze were the only other batters who score 50+ runs across the three T20s.

Watkin finished with 8w in the T20s and no other NZ-A bowler had more than 2w. Devonshire, Emma Black and Hannah Rowe had 2w each.

Plimmer and Watkin come away from this tour as the best players for NZ-A. Plimmer had scores of 14, 100, 0, 14, 51* and 13 in England. After hitting her first century in the 2023/24 HBJ Shield season, Plimmer now has two 100+ scores this year with a knock of 112 against Sri Lanka late last summer followed by her century for NZ-A.

Her last two centuries came after missing most of the season due to a back injury and Plimmer has scored all three of her T20I 50+ scores in the last year. The first came at the T20 World Cup, then she hit another in Australia before her knock in England. Plimmer made her debut for Wellington in the 2019/20 summer and all six of her 50+ scores in both formats were scored since the start of the 2023/24 summer so her development is clear for all to see.

Watkin was an enticing selection for this squad as she dropped away from the White Ferns mix for a few years but had returned to regular NZ 11/North vs South roles in recent years. As one of the most naturally talented cricketers in Aotearoa, Watkin has a skillset that can add to White Ferns and now she has a strong tour with NZ-A to her name.

While she didn't dominate the LA series, Watkin was solid with bat and ball. She finished as one of five batters who scored 50+ runs and an average of 20 or higher, as well as being the second best bowler for NZ-A. Then came the T20 series in which she led NZ-A for runs with a nifty strike-rate of 129.4 and her excellent bowling where she was the only NZ-A bowler below 6rpo (4.9).

For NZ-A Watkin was fifth for LA runs, second for LA wickets, first for T20 runs and wickets. She was the only NZ-A batter to hit more than one six and led the squad with three. Watkin bowled the most overs in both formats as well with 23 in the LA series and 12 in the T20s, finishing as the only NZ-A bowler to hit 10+ overs in the T20s and she was joined by Rowe in bowling 20+ LA overs.

Gaze and Illing were a notch below the two best players. Gaze only played one of the LA games and she made the most of it with 81 runs @ 137sr, followed by 74 runs @ 161sr in the T20s. She had the highest NZ-A batting strike-rate in the LA series for wahine who scored 10+ runs and the highest T20 strike-rate, scoring 20+ runs in three of her four innings on tour.

2025 is already Gaze's best year of White Ferns batting in both formats and now she has a strong NZ-A tour in the bag. While Polly Inglis was the wicket-keeper for most of the tour, Gaze continues to show that she deserves game time as an aggressive batter who can bat anywhere in the line up. Gaze was second to Plimmer for the most fours/sixes hit for NZ-A and her 10 fours/1 six combo in her only LA game was exactly the same as Bella James in three innings.

Watkin was the leading wicket-taker for both teams in the T20s and Illing had that honour in the one-dayers with 6w @ 19.1avg/6rpo. Illing did that while only playing two of the three games and then she dipped way from that excellent mahi in the T20s with 1w @ 59avg/8.4rpo. This is aligned with her career mahi as she averages 26 in LA bowling and 32.2 in T20 bowling.

Illing earned a White Ferns call up after her best summer of domestic bowling and she showcased her lefty seam on tour. This is especially intriguing because Molly Penfold didn't take a wicket in her 17 overs across both formats for NZ-A and Illing has already shown that she is almost as fast/bouncey as Penfold, so the two Auckland seamers could swap places in the White Ferns mix.

Rowe and Black were solid as seamers in both formats, offering more consistency than Illing but without the x-factor. Rowe has been in the White Ferns for a while and has all-rounder potential but she didn't take that opportunity, nor did she dominate with the ball as a regular White Fern may be expected to.

Black was close to a White Ferns debut last summer and is on track to add to Aotearoa's seam bowling depth, with a similar bowling style to Jess Kerr. With bowling averages of 25.6 (LA) and 20.3 (T20), Black is the best seamer in Aotearoa who hasn't played for White Ferns and she has also shown development in her batting as she had a knock of 32* @ 110sr, as well as having five not-outs in her last six innings.

Devonshire is another young cricketer who will be adding to her White Ferns appearances last summer. Her and Gaze were the only NZ-A batters who had 100+ strike-rates in both formats, while also taking at least a wicket in both formats. As a lefty batter and spinner, White Ferns suddenly have another lefty batter joining Brooke Halliday and another lefty bowler joining Illing and Fran Jonas.

Here are some funky match ups in the White Ferns mixer (LA | T20)...

Bree Illing: 26avg/4.8rpo | 32.2avg/6.3rpo
Molly Penfold: 32.5avg/5.4rpo | 31avg/7.1rpo
Izzy Gaze: 19.7avg/73.8sr | 13.9avg/104.3sr
Polly Inglis: 22.4avg/73.9sr | 15.7avg/89.4sr
Flora Devonshire: 25.6avg/5.1rpo | 28.1avg/6.5rpo
Fran Jonas: 31.4avg/4.3rpo | 23.2avg/6rpo

James and Plimmer were the only batters who averaged 30+ in both formats. James' best knock was 80 runs in the first game of the tour and that was part of three 50+ scores in a row featuring the last two North vs South games. Despite not piling up runs, James still had three 20+ scores in her five innings and is still the best emerging White Ferns batter who could overtake Lauren Down in the top-order.

Izzy Sharp flashed her impeccable strokes with a knock of 38 runs @ 165sr in the T20s. While clearly a player with White Ferns potential, Sharp hasn't scored enough runs consistently to climb into the White Ferns squad rotation. It's similar but different for Emma McLeod who had a knock of 43 runs in the LA series and along with Sharp she will play lots of cricket for White Ferns, but right now she is lacking in the power that White Ferns want.

McLeod had the lowest strike-rate for NZ-A batters with 30+ runs in the LA series (69sr) and scored 4 runs @ 67sr in her only T20 appearance, which along with relatively low career strike-rates, gives McLeod an easy avenue for development. Along with Sharp averaging 9.6 in the LA series, these two will benefit from the White Ferns development system and being relied on to score domestic runs.

Amie Hucker played one LA game and two T20s, with her 1w @ 6rpo in the T20s making her the second most economical NZ-A bowler behind Watkin. Anna Browning only played one T20 game on tour and didn't do much, but all the younger ladies will benefit from this experience and the Hucker/Browning duo both have the ability to debut for White Ferns in the next few years.

NZ-A vs England A One-Dayer Stats

Batting

Georgia Plimmer: 114 runs @ 38avg/87sr, 1 x 100
Bella James: 109 runs @ 36.3avg/91sr, 1 x 50
Izzy Gaze: 81 runs @ 81avg/137sr, 1 x 50
Emma McLeod: 77 runs @ 25.6avg/69sr
Jess Watkin: 61 runs @ 20.3avg/87sr
Flora Devonshire: 59 runs @ 19.6avg/125sr, 1 x 50
Hannah Rowe: 40 runs @ 13.3avg/73sr
Polly Inglis: 34 runs @ 17avg/121sr
Emma Black: 33 runs @ 89sr
Izzy Sharp: 29 runs @ 9.6avg/59sr
Molly Penfold: 14 runs @ 7avg/93sr
Nensi Patel: 10 runs @ 5avg/33sr
Amie Hucker: 3 runs @ 3avg/150sr
Bree Illing: 1 run @ 50sr

Bowling

Bree Illing: 19ov, 6w @ 19.1avg/6rpo
Jess Watkin: 23ov, 3w @ 38avg/4.9rpo
Emma Black: 17ov, 2w @ 42avg/4.9rpo
Hannah Rowe: 21ov, 2w @ 49avg/4.6rpo
Nensi Patel: 13.4ov, 1w @ 69avg/5rpo
Flora Devonshire: 13ov, 1w @ 82avg/6.3rpo
Molly Penfold: 10ov @ 6.6rpo
Amie Hucker: 9ov @ 8.3rpo

NZ-A vs England A T20 Stats

Batting

Jess Watkin: 88 runs @ 29.3avg/129sr
Georgia Plimmer: 78 runs @ 39avg/110sr
Izzy Gaze: 73 runs @ 24.6avg/161sr
Izzy Sharp: 46 runs @ 23avg/148sr
Flora Devonshire: 37 runs @ 18.5avg/103sr
Bella James: 35 runs @ 35avg/121sr
Nensi Patel: 24 runs @ 24avg/92sr
Hannah Rowe: 19 runs @ 19avg/95sr
Emma McLeod: 4 runs @ 4avg/67sr
Anna Browning: 2 runs @ 2avg/100sr
Polly Inglis: 0 runs of 9 balls
Molly Penfold: 0 runs off 2 balls

Bowling

Jess Watkin: 12ov, 8w @ 7.avg/4.9rpo
Flora Devonshire: 6ov, 2w @ 25.5avg/8.5rpo
Emma Black: 8ov, 2w @ 26.5avg/6.6rpo
Hannah Rowe: 7.4ov, 2w @ 27avg/7rpo
Amie Hucker: 6ov, 1w @ 36avg/6rpo
Bree Illing: 7ov, 1w @ 59avg/8.4rpo
Anna Browning: 2ov @ 11rpo
Nensi Patel: 4ov @ 9.2rpo
Molly Penfold: 7ov @ 9.8rpo

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