This year I spent a frustrating time following the White Ferns at the World T20 in June while the men defeated England in a test series. We were knocked out and should have done much better with the team we had being former champions in 2024.
The tournament also marked the departure of three key players: Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Lea Tahuhu. Bates and Devine are all-time greats.
Bates finishes with 5982 Women’s ODI runs and 4758 Women’s T20I runs. Playing over 180 games for the White Ferns in both formats from 2006-2026. Bates finishes as New Zealand's record run-scorer in women's internationals, and the outright leading run-scorer in women's T20Is.
Devine is an all rounder and finishes with 4279 Women’s ODI runs and 3817 Women’s T20I runs. Devine picked up 111 Women’s ODI wickets and 158 Women’s T20I wickets. Playing over 150 games for the White Ferns in both formats from 2006-2026.
Impressive numbers for both players. Devine retires as the woman who led New Zealand to their first global title. Devine will also be remembered for her six-hitting exploits in Australia in the WBBL.
Tahuhu took 125 wickets in Women’s ODIs and 100 wickets in Women’s T20Is, quite a career and achievement.
Melie Kerr talked about how the White Ferns fared saying: "I remember my first World Cup was over here in 2017 and again we underperformed as a side, but you learn so much from loss and defeat and disappointment.”
MARK PIRIE
White Ferns Thoughts
The White Ferns bowed out of the World T20,
three players retiring from the game.
Devine and Bates the two all-time greats.
The White Ferns will be depleted
but with the rising star Izzy Sharp
they have genuine batting talent.
Melie Kerr wasn’t the dynamo in this
tournament that she has been in the past.
Coming off the back of her match-winning
performance at the Basin, she averaged 24.80.
New Zealand fans will be left to rue what might
have been, a narrow loss to the Windies,
a surprising defeat to Sri Lanka,
and the final defeat at the hands of England.
Last time, we were champions, a real feat in
White Ferns cricket. We hold on to that memory.
Poem © Mark Pirie
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