White Ferns eye World Cup with confidence
White Ferns coach Haidee Tiffen is rightly encouraged about her side’s chances of winning the World Cup later this year.
A narrow Rose Bowl series defeat against Australia for the New Zealand women’s cricket side indicated they should be regarded as genuine title contenders when the tournament starts in England in June.
‘‘Really confident,’’ was the phrase Tiffen used when looking ahead to the limited-overs tournament.
New Zealand were last world champions in 2000 - a year after they last beat Australia in the oneday Rose Bowl series - but Tiffen believes her charges will be sharpened and encouraged by the just-completed series against the Southern Stars, who clinched a 2-1 victory in the final over of Sunday’s deciding match in Mount Maunganui.
‘‘Measuring yourself against the best team - and Australia have proven that during this season we’ll iron out a few things we need to,’’ Tiffen said.
‘‘It’s been a wonderful series for us to learn and grow and we’re certainly on track.’’
So what do the White Ferns need to improve on to capture some silverware?
One area the Australians were clearly superior in was fielding. New Zealand captain Suzie Bates described her team’s fielding effort last Thursday as disappointing and Australia put them under plenty of pressure in the decider.
Too often the visitors were able to take singles on shots hit straight to a fielder inside the 30-metre circle, and could also run twos and threes on balls that almost reached the boundary as the White Ferns often relied on relay throws. In contrast, the Australian players had better arms while captain Meg Lanning and Alex Blackwell took superb catches to remove the dangerous duo of Bates and Katey Martin at crucial moments, and NZ wicketkeeper Rachel Priest missed a couple of critical opportunities.
New Zealand’s more aggressive approach with the bat was notable in the decider as they struck 33 boundaries compared to 17 in the previous match. That had them set up for what could have been a match-winning tally before the middle and lower order slumped in the latter stages.
‘‘We were in a good position to get 300 and I think the key wicket was when Martin went out,’’ Tiffen said.
‘‘We didn’t have that top order batting deep, but in saying that we have batters down the order capable of doing the job.’’
That’s yet to be proven, and it may be worth considering a change of the batting order so someone like Katie Perkins is there to provide late impetus with lower order hitting power. What will give Tiffen more weapons is the return of key all-rounder Sophie Devine, who missed the Rose Bowl games due to a dislocated thumb, while Maddy Green and Leigh Kasperek were also sidelined by injury.
Despite that, it still took an unbeaten ton by the game’s best bat, Lanning, to deny them victory as 16-year-old leg-spinner Amelia Kerr emerged as a prodigious talent.
‘‘The girls, the entire team and support staff really believed that we could have done it today - and in the other game on Thursday as well,’’ Tiffen said on Sunday.
‘‘But they’re a classy side when they have their backs up against the wall, they come out and play really good cricket and it’s a real challenge for us.’’