“The best part is that everyone pitched in,” Devine said. “I thought Hannah Rowe was great at the top, obviously Jess Kerr is back in the middle and the spinners have done a great job as well.
“I’m a little wary of Susie Bates thinking she’s going to be the golden arm now, so we’re going to have to keep her in check,” she added with a faint, wry smile. “But the fantastic all-round team performance probably demonstrates the work we are putting in behind the scenes and that we know that if we do things right, we will be a team that is hard to beat.”
Bates, a veteran opener and part-time bowler, showed a knack for finding key wickets in both series, but it was the performance of the entire bowling unit that pleased Devine most. She placed six in this match, missing injured seamer Rosemary Mair since the end of the T20I. Seamers Rowe and Jess Kerr won with three wickets each, while Amelia Kerr took 2 for 46 to leave England out for 194 with 3.3 overs remaining.
“Obviously we still have a lot of work to do to stay in touch with Australia (and) India, but I think getting a win like that in cricket shows that it was a comprehensive win for us against a top quality side. “
sophie divine
“This has probably happened over the last 18, 24 months as we have tried to build our bowling depth. (We) have too many options at the moment and today we bought Eden Carson for another spin bowling option. “Devine said. “I thought Rosemary Mair was probably our bowler for the series. It was unfortunate we lost her to injury, but the fact that we now have players who can come in and perform puts us in a really good position in terms of putting. It puts pressure on each player, but we know that once we get there we can really do the job and perform the way we do, especially against a really strong England team.
“Sometimes we have to have a bit of perspective that what we ask of them (young players) is incredibly difficult and they are not going to succeed every time. That’s where the confidence and belief comes from, being with them and helping them develop their skills. “Because we know they have it, we see how hard they work behind the scenes every day and hopefully they can take credit from that.”
It was Divine’s powerful 93-ball century that sealed victory after New Zealand fell behind 2-14 and lost cheaply to promoted Georgia Plimmer, replacing opener Bates and the injured Bernadine Bezuidenhout. She shared an unbroken century stand with Maddy Green after hitting 76 with Amelia Kerr. Needing 12 runs to win and reach 100, Devine secured both by hitting Charlie Dean twice for three balls over the deep midwicket fence.
“I wanted to go out there and help the team and lead from the front, so when I got my chance today, I really wanted to step up,” Devine said. “I’ve seen how hard these girls have worked on this series over the past few weeks and although the results haven’t gone their way, I think the work that’s been going on behind the scenes is starting to show that we’re trending in the right direction. by.
“Obviously we still have a lot of work to do to stay in touch with Australia (and) India, but I think getting a win like that in cricket shows that it was a comprehensive win for us against a top quality side. do.”
And while her plan wasn’t to end the match with two maxes, Devine especially enjoyed looking into Nat Sciver-Brunt’s eyes afterwards. “I just wanted to get the job done and be really ruthless and Nat Sciver-Brunt started yapping at me and said, ‘You’ve got two shots, two balls, crack.’ Somebody egged me on, yeah, my My arm was a little weak, so, look, whatever happened, I’m glad I was able to finish the game with a few overs.”
“I think the way she absorbs pressure early in the innings, tactically targets bowlers that were good match-ups for her, absorbs that pressure and then returns it back to us, I think, is a really good lesson for us, the middle order and our Ostrich. “
Heather Knight by Sophie Devine
The two sides will meet again in England for three ODIs and five T20Is in June and July as they step up preparations for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year.
Before the trip to England, Devine said he was anxiously expecting his team to do more to ensure the gains made at home were not lost.
“If I’m being honest, we’re going to be absolutely whipped, and that’s what we have to do,” Devine said. “We have identified a number of areas with the bat, ball and field that need a significant amount of improvement to keep up with these top standards and play the style we want to play – a lot of balls being hit, a lot of balls being bowled and the likes of Lincoln and Mount Maunganui. “I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in with this group and working hard because we’re doing the dirty, hard work in the pits.”
Valkerie Baynes is the executive editor of women’s cricket at ESPNcricinfo.
