So the White Ferns start the home summer with a historic but unsurprising T20I loss to Pakistan.
The usual White Ferns wheel of selection favouritism and curious omissions continues. Though the batting cracks when one of Kerr/Bates/Devine is out of the lineup are significant, like Amelia Kerr was today.
About the only people surprised at the state of the White Ferns right now will be NZC and the White Ferns selectors.
Bernadine Bezuidenhout is somehow an automatic selection when fit/available, but her international batting so far makes Lee Germon look like Adam Gilchrist.
@mariner4life Somehow this is a barely questioned pick for opening the White Ferns batting
To be fair to the middle order, they took it a lot closer than I thought, but still a historic first series loss to Pakistan in T20I's. And at home.
@Donsteppa Bezuidenhout has only just returned from a couple of seasons away with a serious health problem. I assume she is opening to get the strike rate up. The young WK Gaze is only 19 and hasn't done anything yet either. It sums up the depth for NZ.
@Bovidae I remember reading that, it sounded like a rough couple of years. Also had to leave the SA tour earlier this year with illness, which triggered that fit/available comment.
Bezuidenhout played a fair bit (most?) of the last home summer for the ND Brave I think. I'd have to recheck the domestic stats, but it is telling that she was straight back into the side. To echo @mariner4life's comment, it feels like shades of Rod Latham type pick.
You're right, the batting depth is especially horrid. We're genuinely missing an injured Brooke Halliday, with an ODI batting average of 24.28, and a T20I average of 10.25. We do seem to be turning Hannah Rowe into an all-rounder.
@Smudge said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
@mariner4life said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
wait, the girls won a WC?
23 years ago but yes.
there was a womens WC 23 years ago? How delightfully progressive
@mariner4life said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
@Smudge said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
@mariner4life said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
wait, the girls won a WC?
23 years ago but yes.
there was a womens WC 23 years ago? How delightfully progressive
Your old club (I think?) had a nice milestone a few weeks ago. At all levels it sometimes feels like we develop bowling all-rounders in the girls/womens game, so this was something to celebrate locally with the bat.
A big milestone in the advancement of Western Bay of Plenty women's cricket was announced last Saturday, with Bay of Plenty Women's Captain Tash Wakelin posting a century in senior men's grade competition.
Wearing the colours of Otumoetai Cadets in the WBOPCA Division Four competition encounter with Bay Blasters, Wakelin took charge of her side’s target of 182 in the forty over per side game.
...
Her 100 runs came from 87 balls and included fourteen 4's.
The first women's century in Western Bay of Plenty men’s grade cricket cemented the development of women's cricket in the region. [Well... we still need a full Women's grade among the clubs, but it is a bloody good step all the same]
Posted because: at the risk of rushing yet another 17 year old into the White Ferns, she might be needed at this rate...
Heh, my reverse jinx ability to comment people into form remains strong. Bezuidenhout now with a maiden ODI half century in match number 17.
White Ferns 100/0 in the 18th over in Queenstown.
White Ferns should have this one in the bag after scoring 365, and the Pakistani #3 & #4 batters having a Mark Richardson-like strike rate.
Easy win in the end
The captain of the 2000 WCWC winning team, Emily Drumm, used to work for me. she was an excellent source of gossip on both the women and mens game.
@Donsteppa said in White Ferns Summer 2023/24:
Heh, my reverse jinx ability to comment people into form remains strong. Bezuidenhout now with a maiden ODI half century in match number 17.
And Bates then ran her out with a century in sight.
Let's see if they can be consistent with their batting.
A 2 - 1 ODI series win in the end. The moment of last night's Super Over loss coinciding with the exact moment that "Sumo" decided to tell us Sophie Devine had never played in a losing one.
Emily Drumm was brilliant as a player. Some of her opinions & decisions as a selector, and published views on Tests, arguably don't meet the same high bar.
