White Ferns’ World Cup went wrong
1 Top order unable to maintain top form
Three weeks ago when this column shrewdly claimed the White Ferns would win the Cricket World Cup, the potential of the top order was Exhibit A.
If anything, ahead of Saturday’s final pool game against Pakistan, that group has shown its potential. Unfortunately for the hosts’ semifinal chances, all but extinguished by the loss to England, it was rarely fulfilled.
Skipper Sophie Devine, her side’s highest runs scorer, was the only toporder batter to come close to her best, scoring 297 runs at an average of 49.5, numbers that could have been better but for her back injury suffered against England.
Amelia Kerr and Amy Satterthwaite were decent without being difference makers, averaging 35.4 and 35 respectively, while Maddy Green (30.25) had one good knock to go with a couple of starts and Suzie Bates (25.8) endured a tournament to forget.
New Zealand could have coped with underachievement from a couple of that quintet, but to be serious contenders, needed more from each of them.
2 Lower order of little help
Assigning blame to the top five for sub-par totals makes sense, but the rest of the order also deserves its fair share.
While Satterthwaite and Green batted too conservatively — recording strike rates of 69.4 and 61.6 — it’s no wonder they employed that tactic when the players in spots six through to 11 couldn’t be trusted to see out an innings.
Excluding the rain-affected win over Bangladesh, when the White Ferns lost only one wicket, and the capitulation against Australia, when everything went wrong, the hosts built four decent platforms and squandered them all.
The fifth wicket fell in those four matches with an average of 181 on the board. But instead of kicking on to post formidable scores, the rest of the line-up added an average of only 56 more runs.
Collapses were particularly damaging in the four defeats, failing to bat out the full complement in each. And considering the margin in three of those defeats, the extra deliveries left in the middle could well have proved the difference.
3 Stalling in the clutch?
It’s fair to say that had a few little things gone differently in those heartbreaking losses, New Zealand would have been semifinal-bound.
And it’s equally reasonable to suggest a team can feel unfortunate to drop three close games in a row, given any pattern in tight results is random statistical noise.
But “Five reasons why the White Ferns were unlucky” isn’t a compelling topic, so let’s examine their late-game performance.
Against the West Indies, the hosts had recovered from the departure of centurion Devine — removed by Chinelle Henry’s unbelievable caught and bowled — and required six runs from the final over with three wickets in hand.
Henry then produced the secondgreatest fielding moment of her life, diving to deny a boundary for Jess Kerr after looking a liability in the field all game. Three wickets in the next four balls and the Ferns had wilted. Pretty unlucky.
But in the other two tight losses, New Zealand were fortunate to get as close as they did, with South Africa collapsing in their chase from 161-2 to 217-8 and England doing likewise to fall from 176-4 to 196-9.
A win over the Windies might have been enough, but coach Bob Carter’s side would be unwise to leave this tournament thinking their exit was down to bad luck.
4 Personnel problems
The typical cycle for most teams will see tournament failure followed by calls to sack the coach.
Simon Doull, for one, thinks Carter and his “stale coaching methods” should be a casualty, saying on Newstalk ZB that he has been unable to improve the playing group.
Pre-tournament questions were also raised about selection, particularly the omission of offspinner Leigh Kasperek, overlooked for 17-year-old Fran Jonas, who featured only in the first match.
But Frankie Mackay’s performance alleviated some of that criticism, taking 4-34 to almost salvage the England game and highlight a tournament in which she snagged eight wickets with a 4.31 economy rate, second-best by a Kiwi behind Jess Kerr (4.25).
Injuries have been costlier than selection, with Lauren Down’s pretournament withdrawal limiting batting depth before Devine and Lea Tahuhu were forced off against England when in potentially decisive form.
5 Expectations were too high
New Zealand came in to the World Cup ranked fifth, having placed fifth in 2017, and look set to finish there or thereabouts once the final games have been played.
This result was predictable, despite what you may have read (ahem). The White Ferns played 32 ODIs against fellow World Cup sides between the end of the 2017 tournament and the end of 2021, winning nine and losing 23.
Last month’s 4-1 series win over India proved a false dawn against understrength opposition; no repeatable winning formula had been developed.
Perhaps they could have been expected to experience the hometown boost enjoyed by many tournament hosts, but any advantage was largely negated by Covid bubbles and crowd caps.
Alas, maybe we should learn our lesson before the next major event on these shores. Which is, let’s see, the Women’s Rugby World Cup in October. No chance we overhype the prospects of our defending champion rugby team.