2025 ODI Women's World Cup: Five Sneaky Important White Ferns
New Zealand start the Women's ODI World Cup on Wednesday and while there is a strong group of leaders who are likely to dominate the White Ferns' mahi throughout the tournament, there are also a few sneaky important players who are likely to play most games and their contributions will be crucial to how Aotearoa performs.
Since the start of 2024, White Ferns have played 14 ODIs and seven wahine have played at least 10 games during this period. The only top-tier Fernies in this group are Suzie Bates and Maddy Green, which leaves five players who don't get much buzz in the White Ferns mixer as the most active ODI players in this period.
At the top of the charts are Brooke Halliday and Izzy Gaze who join Bates and Green on 14 games. Halliday is second for Aotearoa runs in this period and along with Bates, they are the only batters who have scored 50+ runs at least three times. Slide back further and the most notable lefty batter in the White Ferns squad had two years avreaging 30+ in ODI batting (2023, 24), before Halliday scored 42 runs @ 21avg in her two innings earlier this year.
Halliday is also better outside of Aotearoa and she has a strong record in a small sample size of ODIs in India. For ODIs in New Zealand, Halliday averages 22.7 and this improves to 30.2 with a slightly higher strike-rate (70.9 - 73) for away games. Halliday also averages 44.3 in India and while she will probably lock down one role in the batting line up, Halliday has shown that she can adapt to different roles.
Halliday's mahi by batting position
Four: 2inns, 21avg/72.4sr
Five: 8inns, 33.8avg/70.7sr
Six: 16inns, 26avg/68sr
Seven: 9inns, 22.8avg/86sr
Gaze was a surprising presence at the top of the most games played list and she is on track to be the leading wicket-keeper at the World Cup. Gaze played both warm up games and Polly Inglis didn't bat in those games, plus Gaze was impressive in the two losses vs India with 101* @ 101sr and 21 runs @ 68sr.
This is part of a fresh development boost for Gaze as she has scored over 10 runs in each of her last nine innings and has 20+ runs in seven innings. This includes a knock of 81 runs @ 137sr for NZ-A vs England A and along with tidy glovework behind the stumps, Gaze will be required to score quickly batting down the order.
Gaze has shown that her natural style is to whack boundaries and after three years below 70sr in ODI batting, Gaze started this year with a strike-rate of 84 across two innings. Add in Gaze's strike-rate of 137 in her one-day knock for NZ-A as well as 161sr in her three T20 innings of that series for a more compelling vista of Gaze smacking the ball around. This should balance out her record of 17avg/67sr in ODIs since the start of 2024 and her runs in the warm up games will hopefully balance her away batting record of 10.4avg/55sr.
Georgia Plimmer has played 12 ODIs since the start of 2024 and she is almost certain to form an opening batter combo with Bates. Plimmer's surge in one-day batting has been well documented by The Niche Cache with her best List-A innings being played over the last 12 months and clear progression in the development pipeline.
As one of three White Ferns who have hit an ODI century in this period, Plimmer averages 28.3 and is one of five batters who have scored 300+ runs. Plimmer had scores of 6 and 3 in the warm up games and the only country aside from Aotearoa in which she has a 40+ score is India. Plimmer has a solid record of 35avg/74sr in her three innings of ODI batting in India and just like the T20 World Cup last year, her punchy strokes will be crucial for White Ferns at the top of the order.
Jess Kerr and Eden Carson have played 10 ODIs each since the start of 2024 and both are likely to feature as highly talented cricketers. Along with Plimmer, these players are excellent fielders and they have added all-round skills to their main attributes that saw them command White Ferns selection.
Kerr is the leading wicket-taker for Aotearoa in this period of ODIs and while she has bowled the most overs, she has been efficient with a record of 22.5avg/4.2rpo in her 10 innings. This is Kerr's second year in a row of averaging below 30 in ODI bowling and it's the first phase of her career doing this double, but it's her growth as a batter that should see Kerr be a key player in the middle order.
With batting strike-rate of 105 in 30 innings, Kerr has consistently shown her ability to score quicker than most batters. She is the only batter who has 50+ runs and a strike-rate over 100 for White Ferns in ODIs since the start of 2024 and this flowed into her warm up mahi where she had scores of 36 runs @ 100sr and 12 runs @ 120sr.
Kerr also took wickets in both games which is part of four consecutive games with 2+ wickets, plus she has 2+ wickets in seven of her last 10 games. Carson on the flipside has no wickets in seven of her last nine bowling innings and bowled 5.3ov @ 6.7rpo in the first warm upper, then she had 6.2ov with 1w @ 7.5rpo in the second game.
Carson is the second best spinner in the team behind Amelia Kerr but she will need wickets to maintain her spot in this role during the World Cup, especially as Flora Devonshire offers more all-round skill even when accounting for Carson's best summer of batting last season. Carson averaged 40+ in two years before a tidy series vs Sri Lanka earlier this year (4w @ 23.2avg/3.7rpo) and she has a solid record in India with 4w @ 29.7avg/3.9rpo in her three innings.
White Ferns can go without Carson bowling her full 10 overs with others like Green, Halliday and Bates capable of offering a few overs. The best White Ferns team has Carson bowling 10 overs alongside A-Kerr though and Carson will need to find ways to be effective, like she was at the T20 World Cup last year (15w @ 14.3avg/6.3rpo) for Aotearoa to crack the semi-finals.
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Peace and love.