A mental note

It’s back to the drawing board for the White Ferns after another world cup disappointment.

The White Ferns’ season was the sort of egg to which even the most eager to please underling would have to give the thumbs down.

Honours were even in back-to-back oneday international (ODI) and T20 series against South Africa, but the big show this season was the T20 World Cup in Australia. After agonising losses to eventual finalists Australia (by four runs) and India (three runs), the New Zealand women failed to progress to the knockout stage for the third tournament in a row.

To rub salt in the wound, the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground took place in front of 86,174 spectators: how the White Ferns must have rued blowing the opportunity to perform on such a stage. For neutrals, the final was a disappointingly one-sided affair from the moment in the first over when Shafali Verma, India’s 16-year-old star in the making, dropped Aussie opener Alyssa Healy. Healy went on to score the fastest 50 in an ICC final by a man or woman and put on 115 for the first wicket with Beth Mooney, who was dropped on 8. Australia rattled up 188 for 4; in reply, the shellshocked Indians managed just 99.

Captain Sophie Devine identified possible causes for the Ferns’ failed campaign – “whether it’s a mindset, whether it’s a mental thing, whether it’s game awareness, whether it’s just experience of playing in those pressure situations” – that could probably be lumped under “mental toughness”.

She vowed there would be a thorough review, “because it’s a crappy feeling to miss out again”. Let’s hope the review produces a magic formula, or at least an effective one, because it will be a far crappier feeling to miss out again next year when New Zealand hosts the ODI tournament.