White Ferns ‘devastated’ as Down ruled out of CWC
The White Ferns were left devastated a week out from the start of the Cricket World Cup, when batter Lauren Down was ruled out of the tournament with a fractured thumb.
New Zealand Cricket yesterday confirmed the extent of Down’s injury, suffered during the fifth ODI against India, and announced uncapped Wellington Blaze batter Georgia Plimmer, who only turned 18 earlier this month, as her replacement.
Down suffered the injury when she dived forward to complete a catch early in India’s innings at John Davies Oval in Queenstown on Thursday. While the ball stuck, she instantly dropped to her knees in pain, and played no further part as India secured a consolation win, but lost the series 4-1.
Playing in the middle order, rather than as an opener, where most of her 22 caps have come, Down impressed as the White Ferns won the third match of the series last Friday, making an unbeaten 64 off 52 balls and finishing their chase of 280 with a six.
She also made 30 in the fifth match, but will now have to watch from afar as the White Ferns contest a World Cup on home soil, looking to emulate the team that won the title the last time the tournament was held in New Zealand, in 2000.
Down could be seen in tears as she left the field and White Ferns captain Sophie Devine said yesterday that she had known right away that she had ‘‘done some serious damage,’’ a turn of events that left the team ‘‘devastated’’.
‘‘She’s a pretty tough cookie, so we knew that it was pretty serious.
‘‘It probably shows how much this group cares about one another that we really wrapped around her tightly and acknowledged the importance that she has to this group.
‘‘She’s been playing beautifully . . . she was really starting to come into her own, so to lose her was really tough for this side, but we also know that that happens in cricket, and unfortunately it means her tournament is over.’’
Plimmer made her debut for the Blaze as a 16-year-old in 2019 and while she’s made some useful contributions in her first three summers in both ODI and Twenty20 cricket, she is yet to score a half-century, which suggests this is a selection made with an eye to the future.
Down appeared to have been behind Maddy Green and Brooke Halliday in the middle-order batting pecking order before her match-winning innings last week, while the White Ferns could also promote all-rounders Hayley Jensen and Frankie Mackay if needed.
Plimmer appears to have leapfrogged players who have had international experience, but haven’t nailed down a place, such as Kate Ebrahim, who leads the run scoring charts in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield domestic competition and made a couple of T20 appearances last year, and Natalie Dodd, who also featured last summer.
‘‘[She’s] a player that I’m really excited about and has a huge future ahead of her,’’ Devine said of the new recruit. ‘‘She’s a real dynamo in the field.’’