Devine full of praise for New Zealand’s resilience despite suffering an 89-run defeat against Australia yesterday.
Devine lauds NZ’s fighting spirit on ‘physically and mentally draining’ day.
A World Cup opener match. In opposition to the world champions. While pursuing, New Zealand is attempting to break through the 300 barrier for the first time. They are plagued with a depressing record of 15 straight ODI defeats to Australia over the previous eight years. Sophie Devine, who had fielded for almost 50 overs and bowled eight overs in the sun, was exhausted by the intense heat and humidity in Indore at the conclusion of the monsoon season.
If pressure might come in many forms, it did for the captain of New Zealand in their first World Cup match against Australia, which ended in an 89-run defeat despite her batting for more than two and a half hours and scoring a brave and tenacious century, her seventh in the format. Soon later, after playing 91.1 overs on a demanding evening, she drained her 36-year-old body of all remaining vitality.
Most exhausting game: Devine
According to Devine, the match was “probably the most demanding” of her 19-year ODI career, which comes to a conclusion with 2018 World Cup.
“I’ll just say come and feel my shirt, I think you’ll see how tough that was,” Devine said about her sweat-soaked jersey having walked in for the press conference only minutes after the match ended. “But I guess that’s the thing that I probably took strength from, is the work that the girls have done over the last six to 12 months, it’s been exactly for a knock like that, it’s the hard stuff that no one sees behind closed doors and every single one of this group has been slogging away, making sure that they’re fit and ready to be able to go out there and do a job like I was able to do today.
“So I’m incredibly proud that, well I was probably a little bit slow towards the end getting a bit tired and things, but I know every one of our players wants to be there and wants to be contributing throughout the full 100 overs. To answer your question, yeah, I think it probably was the most demanding; running around in the field, bowling, trying to keep the Aussies under 400. So yeah, I think both physically and mentally as well, it was pretty draining.”
Devine’s rescue job
The inaugural women’s international in Indore was played on a level pitch, and Devine had the difficult task of saving her side from the abyss of 0 for 2 in the second over in a chase of 327. In order to give New Zealand a fairly manageable equation towards the end, Devine first made sure she got her feet against the precision bowling of the Australian attack, which swung and spun the ball under the lights.
Even though no teammate who batted lower than her reached 30, she sped from 50 to 100 in just 38 balls after achieving a solid half-century off 69 balls. New Zealand needed a tough 200 runs from the final 20 after Brooke Halliday holed out for 28. As some worried Australian faces began to show on the pitch and in the dugout, Isabella Gaze took the lead with six fours thanks to Devine’s quick partnership of 54 in 35 balls for the sixth wicket, which saw New Zealand rally back in the match after Maddy Green had only lasted 18 balls.
They fell short by a distance in the end as Gaze and Devine were dismissed in the space of 13 balls and New Zealand lasted just two more runs after that.
“Just happy with the fight this team showed, a couple of years ago we would have thrown the towel in pretty early,” Devine said at the presentation. “It shows the mindset of the group that we stay in the fight.”