The gap is closing – Devine

Two narrow losses in the space of four days have left White Ferns skipper Sophie Devine with that ‘‘crappy feeling’’ once again.

There is no place in the semifinals for Devine and her team, just as there wasn’t at the 2018 World Twenty20 and at the 2017 one-day World Cup.

With the next one-day World Cup in New Zealand next summer, they will be desperate to avoid that fate for a fourth tournament in a row.

There is no denying they were closer this time than they were two years ago, or the year before that. They lost by three runs against India last Thursday and by four against Australia on Monday, big improvements on the thumpings they were handed by those teams in 2018.

But while they suffered close defeats against two of the world’s best, the final margins did perhaps give them too much credit.

The gap against Australia closed significantly in the final two balls, where Katey Martin scored 10 runs with 15 off two required, while they began the penultimate over against India needing 34, only for Amelia Kerr to nearly pull off a miracle.

Devine was asked about the White Ferns’ repeated failures in her post-match press conference and said it was ‘‘a great question’’.

‘‘Skill-wise we’re there. Everybody knows that we’re a really talented side and we’re growing our depth and we’ve seen that today [Monday] even with myself and Suzie and Rachel Priest not firing, we came close to chasing down a strong Australian side.

‘‘Whether it’s a mental thing, whether it’s game awareness, whether it’s just experience playing in those pressure situations . . . we haven’t played too much cricket together these last 12 months, so whether that’s something as well.

‘‘When we get back home we’ll certainly go through everything and nitpick it, because it is a crappy feeling to miss out again.

‘‘It’s really raw, but we want to keep pushing and showing that we deserve to be there.’’ Once they pick themselves up , the White Ferns’ focus will turn to the one-day game, where they looked well off the pace in losing 3-0 to South Africa at home in January. No fixtures have been announced for the team beyond the end of the World Cup, but Devine revealed they would shortly be off to Sri Lanka and that they would play Australia early next summer.

The White Ferns have lost their last six ODIs – those three against South Africa and three in Australia last year – and four of the six before that – going down 2-1 to India at home last summer, and 2-1 in England the winter before that.

Reflecting on the shorter format, Devine wasn’t getting too wound up.

‘‘We’re really close,’’ she said. ‘‘When you see the Indian game and this game here, we’re close to sides that have a lot more money and a lot more resources and a lot more player depth than we do, and to think we’ve taken both of them to within five runs, it shows that we’re not far off.’’

‘‘We’re not far off.’’ Sophie Devine