White Ferns batters fail to fire
White Ferns coach Ben Sawyer says they have no one to blame but themselves after their historic T20 series loss to Pakistan.
After a seven-wicket loss on Sunday, the White Ferns responded with a better bowling performance at University Oval in Dunedin yesterday, but were ultimately undone by the loss of four early wickets as they chased 138 to level the series.
On an improving wicket, Sawyer was frustrated that the White Ferns couldn’t chase that target with something to spare.
“We should have done that quite easily to be honest,” he said.
“We said at the break that we thought we’d held them to a decent score and one that we should chase.
“We thought the other day that we should get 140 batting first, so to have to chase that on the second day ... we thought that was well within our reach.
“Obviously to be four down at the power play is tough, but I guess the positive to come out of it was to get within 10 [runs]. But we needed more from our top order.”
“We have a bit of a young squad and when the top order don't quite perform, we put them under a lot of pressure.’’ White Ferns coach Ben Sawyer
Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Suzie Bates, Melie Kerr and Sophie Devine could just manage 27 runs between them, a meagre return from such an experienced quartet, and the White Ferns could never fully recover against the impressive tourists.
Sawyer refused to use the hype around Bates’ home-town return as an excuse, and singled out Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe and Molly Penfold for strong individual contributions in a losing side.
However, he said there were simply too many small lapses in the White Ferns’ overall performance, reflecting a side that is still very much a work in progress.
“We’re going to have ups and downs,” he said. “Four games ago, in that first game in South Africa, we had our highest ever run chase. So you go up through some highs and then obviously the last two games have been disappointing.
“So, we’ve been OK, but it's been a bit of a hiccup the last two matches, and it's important that we finish off well in the series and then try and take a bit of momentum into the ODIs that are really, really important in terms of championship points.
“We have a bit of a young squad and when the top order don't quite perform, we put them under a lot of pressure.
“Today, I thought they stood up really, really well and they’re the ebbs and flows that we're going to have to ride a little bit just at the moment.”
The White Ferns don’t have much time to lick their wounds. They travel to Queenstown for the third match of the T20 series on Saturday, before the three-game ODI series starts at the same venue next Tuesday.