Devine puts onus on senior players to step up
Hurting and humiliated, White Ferns captain Sophie Devine is demanding herself and other senior players set the standard after a 10th straight one-day international loss.
Twelve months out from the Women’s Cricket World Cup on home soil, the White Ferns are in a dark place – not having won an ODI in more than two years and dropping 14 of their past 16 matches in the 50-over form.
Tuesday’s eight-wicket thumping against reigning ODI World Cup champions England at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval was their 10th loss on the bounce.
A miserable White Ferns’ performance with bat and ball got worse when senior pace bowler Lea Tahuhu suffered a right hamstring injury late in the match when she fell over the boundary rope trying to save a four. Tahuhu has since been ruled out of the series.
Devine wasn’t pulling any punches after the one-sided loss and said herself and other experienced team members had to deliver. The final two ODIs are in Dunedin tomorrow and Sunday.
‘‘Look, senior players have to stand up. We absolutely have to take the cop for that one.
‘‘We didn’t perform well enough and we were 75 runs short [with the bat],’’ Devine said.
Any chance of the White Ferns ending their 753-day losing drought faded when they delivered a sub-par effort with the bat, dismissed for 178. It was a bleak batting effort after winning the toss on a decent wicket and 75-80 runs short of where they needed to be.
Hayley Jensen, who hadn’t batted higher than seventh for the White Ferns, shone opening for the first time, top scoring with 53. Northern Spirit skipper Brooke Halliday on debut was also impressive at No 7, hitting 50.
The most disappointing aspect was the way Devine, veteran Amy Satterthwaite and Amelia Kerr – three of the side’s best players – got out. They were all dismissed softly, playing poor shots, at crucial stages of the innings when one needed to bat through.
‘‘We were discussing it back in the shed, it was just execution for us and discipline. We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to be setting the standard as senior players. We need to take that on the chin.
‘‘We weren’t up to scratch for international cricket [as a side]. We’ve got confidence in our game, and sticking to it, we know we can perform. It’s just putting it together on the park.’’
The White Ferns are a proud bunch and Devine said they were working diligently behind the scenes at training and in team meetings. No-one liked losing and she acknowledged their recent results were unacceptable and not where they wanted to be.
‘‘Every time you . . .pull on the silver fern it’s a huge honour. We know our performances haven’t been up to scratch.’’