Twenty20 World Cup: White Ferns stay alive with big win over Bangladesh
Hannah Rowe picked up two wickets. Photo / Getty
It’s almost certainly too late, but the White Ferns have finally shown some fight at the Twenty20 World Cup.
After slumping to their second and fifth-lowest scores in T20 history in two damaging defeats to start the Cup, the White Ferns produced their second-highest score this morning, smashing 189-3 as they defeated Bangladesh by 71 runs to claim their first victory.
It boosted their net run rate from –4.050 to –1.517, with another big victory needed against Sri Lanka (-0.194) in their final match on Monday morning to keep their semifinal hopes alive.
Even if they do smash Sri Lanka to move level with them on four points and past them on net run rate, they would then have to wait on the fortunes of South Africa (two points, +1.550), who still have to play Australia and Bangladesh. A favour will be needed in the form of a massive Australian win or big Bangladeshi upset to have any hope of progression.
Still, while the semifinals seem a distant dream, the Ferns promised to go down swinging, and did just that.
Skipper Sophie Devine opted to bat when she won the toss, and after the Ferns openers had returned scores of 0, 0, 0 and 0 in the tournament, Bernadine Bezuidenhout hit her first ball for four in a sign of what was to come.
For the first time this Cup, the White Ferns had a partnership greater than 20, and it came at the most crucial stage of the innings. Bezuidenhout and Suzie Bates ended the powerplay at 49-0 and cruised through to 77 in the ninth over before Bezuidenhout was stumped for 44 off 26 balls.
After two of the worst innings of her career (a golden duck and second-ball duck), Bates righted the ship, looking more assured as she brought up her seventh T20 World Cup 50 off 43 balls.
Amelia Kerr came and went for 16 off 13, while Devine had the luxury of appearing in the 13th over without needing a rescue mission, but departed for her second golden duck of the tournament, bowled between bat and pad.
But despite that double setback, the White Ferns were taking smarter options with the bat, as requested by coach Ben Sawyer.
That was exemplified by Maddy Green’s innings, who played some lovely straight shots and was extremely aggressive. She was helped by playing a frankly weak team, and being able to set a target instead of chasing, but her 44 not out of 20 balls was exactly what the situation required, and what had been missing in the first two games.
Having Bates in the runs was a pivotal change too, and with the assistance of some typically terrible Bangladesh fielding which saw a routine boundary catch dropped and go for six, her and Green smashed 75 off the last six overs; Bates carrying her bat to end on 81 off 61 deliveries.
From there, the crucial question was how many runs the Ferns would win by.
A repeat of the December clash in which the Ferns rolled Bangladesh for 32 would have been ideal, but unfortunately for their semifinal chances, their opposition showed more pluck this time.
The recalled Hannah Rowe picked up wickets in her first two overs and Eden Carson took some late scalps to claim a career-best 3-18, but 30 off 38 from Murshida Khatun and 31 off 22 from Shorna Akter was enough to reach a respectable 118-8 and to dent New Zealand’s semifinal prospects.