On top world of the
Twenty years on from the last time the New Zealand’s women’s cricket team beat Australia in a one-day series, Jimmy Ellingham reminisces with the key performers.
Deep in the dingy bowels of the grandstand the echoes of a remixed If You Could Read My Mind
bounced from concrete wall to wall. Eleven Kiwi sportswomen blasted the CD player and pulled out their dance moves, for they could say they were the best in the world and what a tale they could tell.
It was February 23, 1999, and the New Zealand women’s cricketers had just beaten Australian twice in three days – at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North.
For just the third time, the White Ferns had claimed the coveted Rose Bowl trophy, the prize for trans-Tasman 50-over supremacy. And they haven’t won it since.
Not that the 11 New Zealanders could have foreseen that, or that their series win would lead to a World Cup triumph over Australia 18 months later in Christchurch – with the exact same lineup that played in Palmerston North.
‘‘That feeling of elation at beating Australia, which I have to say is not something we’d done very often, was terrific,’’ says Debbie Hockley, 56, who, 20 years after her New Zealand debut, was in her fourth stint as captain because Maia Lewis was out injured.
Recalling the series her thoughts turn back to the changing room and the team singalong.
‘‘We were all around in a circle and we had a few dance moves to go with it. That feeling of togetherness and enjoyment of having achieved something is something that will never leave my mind.’’
The New Zealand team was a mixture of experience – Hockley and Emily Drumm were the batting mainstays, Katrina Keenan bowled with pace and Cathy Campbell sent down wily off-spin – and youth. Haidee Tiffen was in her first season with the team, wicket keeper Rebecca Rolls was making her mark and a 20-year-old opener was getting a taste of real cricket.
Anna Smith (nee O’Leary) had just finished her bachelor of business studies at Massey University. Now, just across the Manawatu¯ River, she was facing Cathryn Fitzpatrick, the fastest bowler in the world, who could send it down at 130kmh.
Smith held her own, scoring 29 in the first game and 20 in the second. During that second match she was on the end of a tongue lashing from Fitzpatrick, as the Aussies went down fighting.
She was also struck in the helmet, knocking her over, but she was unfazed.
‘‘You couldn’t print some of the things she said,’’ Smith told the Manawatu¯
Standard at the time. ‘‘They gave me a bit of lip, but I don’t mind. If it happens it makes me more determined.’’
The 40-year-old these days lives in Auckland and she has fond memories of the series and the women’s team from the turn of the century.
‘‘I look back and I think: ‘Wow, it’s fantastic what we did’. It was a special group of players and we’ve got that bond all these years down the track.’’
Smith remembers Fitzpatrick bowling quick and short. The longer Smith batted, the more riled the Aussie veteran became.
‘‘I think I was surviving more than playing her. She’s just a great bowler – so competitive. It was probably the first time I’d faced somebody that quick,’’ she says.
‘‘I think they must have been so annoyed with me...
‘‘I’m very privileged looking back being part of the team that won that Rose Bowl and the team that won the World Cup. At the time, it was fantastic.’’
The Australian lineup included all-time great Belinda Clark, and fellow run machines Lisa Keightley and Karen Rolton. The team were world champions, having beaten New Zealand in the final of the 1997 World Cup in India.
In the first Rose Bowl match, on February 21, 1999, they made 227-5, which New Zealand chased down with two balls to spare, seven wickets down. Two days later, New Zealand batted first and made 204-8, before bowling Australia out for 181.
Hockley made 47 in the first-game chase, but Rolls was the real hero. Coming in at No 7, she smashed 60 off 48 balls.
‘‘I don’t think we’d ever played at Fitzherbert Park before,’’ Rolls tells Stuff from Budapest, where she’s on a work trip with the police.
‘‘I played there quite a bit for Central Districts. I remember thinking the outfield is like lightning. I remember thinking if I don’t get some runs today I’ll probably be stuck at No 8 for the rest of my cricket.’’
Rolls used that to her advantage, as she and Tiffen put on a crucial 62 while Hockley circled the boundary, counting down the target.
Tiffen was taking body blows from Fitzpatrick as the pair sneaked every run they could and the Australians became more annoyed.
Rolls, now based in Auckland, but from Hawke’s Bay, remembers hearing from the middle many familiar voices on the sidelines of family and friends among the 300-strong crowd, which had a calming effect amid the Australian chatter.
Rolls struck 44 in the second game and Hockley stroked 54.
Hockley says the whole team played a part in the win, with spinners Campbell and Clare Nicholson strangling the Australian chase in game two.
Hockley first captained New Zealand in 1984 and was at the helm for their first Rose Bowl success, in 1987 in Perth.
‘‘Being able to have the opportunity of captaining a win 12 years after the first time I captained a Rose Bowl win was very special.
‘‘In the second game, when they were chasing, I remember feeling really stressed in the field even as the run rate was going up and up.
‘‘I remember Emily Drumm saying: ‘Don’t worry. They’re not going to get them’.’’
She was right.
What happened next?
New Zealand had a shocker in the third game in Wellington, getting bowled out for 61 and losing by 131 runs.
‘‘I think we were just so focused on the two games in Palmy. We were just exhausted by it,’’ Smith says.
The Mike Shrimpton-coached team went on to win the World Cup in Christchurch in late 2000, under Drumm’s captaincy. They beat Australia by four runs in a tense final as Hockley signed off on her 21-year international career in the best way possible. Hockley is now president of New Zealand Cricket.
Fitzherbert Park hosted one more women’s one-day international when New Zealand played England in 2000, but sees little top-flight action these days.
Meanwhile, women’s cricket, like many sports, is emerging from the shadows in a big way.
Team members from 1999 could only dream of the television coverage and global schedule of today, and the emergence of countries such as India, South Africa and West Indies.
This weekend the White Ferns begin their quest for their first Rose Bowl win in two decades.