Devine ‘one shot away’ from her destructive best
Sophie Devine expects the bouncers to continue from England’s bowlers, but insists she is one shot away from breaking out of her mini slump in the first Twenty20 cricket international in Wellington.
Devine leads the White Ferns onto Sky Stadium at 3pm today for a double-header that was projected to draw 20,000-plus fans but will now be played to the glare of yellow seats.
A year ago, New Zealand’s captain set a world record across men’s and women’s T20 internationals: six consecutive half-centuries against India, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Since then, Devine’s top score was 31 from six T20 international innings, the most recent four knocks against world champions Australia.
After posting phenomenal numbers in the T20 Super Smash for eventual beaten finalists Wellington Blaze (434 runs, average 62, strike rate 165), Devine managed 16, six and 15 in the 2-1 ODI series loss to England as the visiting seamers dug the ball in and tried to unsettle New Zealand’s run machine.
Devine, the world’s top-ranked women’s T20 allrounder, expects more of the same in the shortest format.
‘‘Absolutely, it wouldn’t be international cricket if teams weren’t going hard at you. I’m disappointed with my return with the bat the last two games but I also know
cricket can be a pretty cruel game sometimes.
‘‘I’m feeling good in the nets and hitting the ball well, and it’s about sticking to my processes and trusting it will come right.’’
Thanks to Amy Satterthwaite and Amelia Kerr, the White Ferns flew to Wellington in buoyant mood after ending their 11-match ODI losing streak with a sevenwicket victory over England in Dunedin.
In women’s T20 internationals against England it has been a similar struggle. From 14 matches across the past decade, the White Ferns have won just once, in Whangarei in 2015.
‘‘There’s probably a number of things; professionalism, structure and the domestic cricket that they’ve got over there [in England] but I think we’re making great strides,’’ Devine said.
‘‘We’ve absolutely got the talent to beat these guys and we almost favour ourselves in the T20 format. We’ve played a lot of T20 domestically lately so we’ll back ourselves.’’
Northern Districts allrounder Brooke Halliday, after an impressive ODI debut, was summoned to the T20 squad for the injured Lea Tahuhu, and Canterbury’s Gabby Sullivan remains as injury cover for seamer Hannah Rowe.
Moving international cricket behind closed doors will cost New Zealand Cricket (NZC) at least $1.4 million.
The Black Caps and White Ferns were due to play at Eden Park, Bay Oval and Sky Stadium this week, but all games have been moved to Wellington because of a change in Covid-19 levels.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said in a statement more than 56,000 fans will be missing from the stands due the venues being in alert level 2, under which crowds are not permitted. That equates to more than $1.4 million in gate takings, more than half of the budgeted takings for the season. But it makes up only about 5 per cent of the ‘‘total annual revenue’’ for NZC, White said.
It was ‘‘too early’’ to predict what the latest lockdown might cost the organisation long term, he said.
However, its impact would not have a knock-on impact to community cricket, he said. ‘‘We’ve been very clear about the priority of the community [amateur] game. New Zealand Cricket remains committed to delivering the same level of funding for the next year as it has over the current year.’’ Male international players may face a financial hit as they are on a ‘‘revenue share’’ model contract, Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills said.
Female players are on a fixed payment contract and earnings won’t be affected by diminished gate takings.
The international game is the ‘‘financial lifeline’’ of the sport, White said in November.
NZC also footed the bill to bring international touring sides to the country, totalling more than $2 million.
White confirmed NZC paid $7000 per person for their managed isolation quarantine (MIQ) stay, and ‘‘on average ... an additional $1500 per head’’ for domestic charter flights from Auckland to Christchurch; preparation and delivery of the games and ‘‘provision of gym facilities’’.
NZC also received help from the government. It has claimed $562,368 in the government wage subsidy to date. White said it will ‘‘consider applying’’ for the latest wage subsidy if it does ‘‘meet the requirements’’.
It has also received $1.7 million from Sport New Zealand’s Covid19 response fund, but there’s been no financial assistance from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The organisation was forecasting a $3.5 million deficit this year, and with the latest Covid-19 alert levels, that’s expected to rise.
‘‘We’ll take a hit . . . but we’ll be OK,’’ he said.