2024 T20 World Cup Winning Notes After Defeating Sri Lanka
New Zealand are 2-1 in the T20 World Cup after defeating Sri Lanka with Georgia Plimmer finding a groove at the perfect time. Sri Lanka put up 115/5 in their 20 overs batting first with Leigh Kasperek and Amelia Kerr taking 2 wickets each, along with fellow spinner Eden Carson snaring the other wicket for the White Ferns.
Led by Plimmer's 53 runs @ 120.4sr, the White Ferns reached 118/2 in 17.3 overs with A-Kerr (34* @ 109.6sr) and Sophie Devine (13* @ 162sr) finishing the run-chase. This puts Aotearoa in third for Group A after a win over India to start the tournament and then being rolled by Australia, with one more game against Pakistan to be played on Tuesday morning.
Australia and India are currently in the semi-finals spots ahead of White Ferns, but they play against each other on Monday morning. India share the same record as New Zealand with a slightly better net-run-rate heading into the final games of this phase, plus Pakistan are still a factor and they will need a win against the kiwis have a chance of progression.
Ultimately, this tournament has followed the regular flow of White Ferns mahi. Aotearoa has a 10-4 record against India in T20Is and this improves to 13-1 against Sri Lanka, who have lost every game of the T20WC so far. Against Australia, White Ferns are 21-29-1 but this slips to 2-14 since the start of 2018.
White Ferns are 9-2 against Pakistan and both those losses came last summer when Pakistan won a T20I series in New Zealand. If the White Ferns stick to this pattern, they should defeat Pakistan and get some revenge for that series defeat but they will probably need the net-run-rate mathematics to fall in their favour to crack the semi-finals. Given that Aotearoa hasn't made the T20WC semi-finals in the last three tournaments, this would be an impressive boost to White Ferns cricket.
The only fresh development is Plimmer's oomph at the top of the order. Plimmer scored 53 runs @ 110sr in the third T20I vs Australia and didn't play the two warm up games, followed by scores of 34, 4 and 53 in the T20WC. This amounts to 91 runs @ 30avg/123sr in the tournament, with Plimmer scoring her first two 50+ T20I knocks in recent weeks and rolling through her best year of T20I batting so far...
2022: 51 runs @ 7.2avg/85sr
2023: 63 runs @ 15.7avg/84sr
2024: 223 runs @ 18.5avg/102.7sr
Bates, Devine and A-Kerr are doing most of the batting mahi alongside Plimmer. Bates and A-Kerr have strike-rates below 100 which has seen the get the job done, without stamping their authority on games. Maddy Green and Brooke Halliday have combined for 24 runs in their four innings.
A-Kerr and Rosemary Mair are the best bowlers for Aotearoa, bowling in all three games along with Carson and Lea Tahuhu. Kasperek played her first game of the tournament and took wickets, which is aligned with how Kasperek has a T20I bowling record of 14.8avg/6.4rpo but only gets sporadic opportunities. Kasperek has played four T20Is this year stretching across three different series with two against England in New Zealand, then one against Australia and this T20WC appearance.
Other bowlers who have played one game at the T20WC are Jess Kerr and Fran Jonas. Kasperek's T20I record stacks up nicely against Jonas' (25.8avg/5.9rpo) and Mair is more effective than J-Kerr (2w @ 115avg/7rpo this year) right now, so they should be deployed against Pakistan but one can never predict White Ferns selections. Hannah Rowe and Molly Penfold haven't played a game yet.
White Ferns have hit two sixes, one each for Devine and Plimmer.
18 batters have strike-rates over 100 with Devine (6th) and Plimmer (7th) in the mix.
23 bowlers have taken 4+ wickets with A-Kerr (3rd) and Mair (5th) in the mix.
27 bowlers have conceded less than 5.5rpo with Mair and A-Kerr in the mix, tied for ninth.
Here's what Pakistan has done so far...
vs Sri Lanka
Pakistan: 116 | Sri Lanka: 85/9
vs India
Pakistan: 105/8 | India: 108/4
vs Australia
Pakistan: 82 | Australia: 83/1
Fatima Sana seems likely to return to Pakistan's team for this game against New Zealand and she is their best player despite playing just two games. Here's her T20WC mahi packaged with what she did in the T20I series win vs Aotearoa last summer...
T20 World Cup: 43 runs @ 21.5avg/153.5sr | 4w @ 8.2avg/4.8rpo
T20I Series vs NZ: 21 runs @ 21avg/100sr | 6w @ 9.3avg/5.6rpo
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