White Ferns Return To World Cup Semi-Finals For The 2024 T20 World Cup
It kinda feels like the stars are aligning for New Zealand's White Ferns at the T20 World Cup as they return to the semi-final stage for the first time since 2016. West Indies sealed a semi-final spot against Aotearoa with their win over England and the semi will be played early on Saturday morning, following the Australia vs South Africa semi-final on Friday morning.
West Indies won't be an easy opponent for the White Ferns, but it is a better match up than coming up against England again. England won nine out of 10 T20Is against Aotearoa this year which includes seven losses in a row and losing all eight games of their ODI/T20I tour of England a few months ago. Now England have been shuffled out of the T20WC along with India and New Zealand has retained their top-four spot in women's cricket, a spot that should never have been given up.
The White Ferns record against West Indies is aligned with Aotearoa's domination of India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in T20Is...
vs India: 10-4
vs Sri Lanka: 13-1
vs Pakistan: 10-2
vs West Indies: 15-5
That's 48-12 for New Zealand against these four nations combined. However the semi-final plays out, this is an important juncture for the White Ferns as they missed the semi-finals in the last three T20WC and the last two ODI World Cups. That's five consecutive World Cups in which Aotearoa didn't make the semi-finals and that made it silly to suggest that the White Ferns were a top-four team.
While the kiwis were missing semi-finals, South Africa and India stacked up semi-final appearances in both formats. West Indies deserve to be in this mix as well and while an Aotearoa lens puts White Ferns in the top-four, they are at least competing with South Africa, West Indies and India in the next two spots below Australia and England. Viewing through the Aotearoa lens, we have White Ferns fourth with South Africa third.
The T20I losing streak consisted of games against England and Australia, which wasn't ideal but understandable given the state of White Ferns cricket. The more alarming note was the T20I series loss to Pakistan in Aotearoa to start last summer and the White Ferns rectified that by defeating Pakistan in a must-winner to finish their group stage.
The win over Pakistan featured 17 runs @ 121.4sr from Georgia Plimmer and 3w @ 5.2rpo from Amelia Kerr. The younger members of the Tawa cartel have been New Zealand's best players at the T20WC as Plimmer has the most runs with the highest strike-rate and Kerr is the leading wicket-taker .. of the whole tournament so far.
Kerr is the only player with 10 wickets and her T20I bowling is trending in a delightful direction...
2020: 14w @ 15.5avg/5.3rpo
2021: 2w @ 67.5avg/7.1rpo
2022: 13w @ 22.8avg/5.7rpo
2023: 12w @ 19avg/5.4rpo
2024: 24w @ 17.2avg/7.1rpo
Plimmer is the only kiwi with 100+ runs and she is sixth for T20WC runs as one of 12 batters who have scored 100+ runs in the tournament. Plimmer's strike-rate of 122.7 is third behind Harmanpreet Kaur's 133.9sr and Danni Wyatt's 124.7sr of the batters with 100+ runs, which means that Plimmer has the highest strike-rate of the 100+ run crew who are still playing in the tournament.
This has done little to shake Plimmer's T20I career mahi of 14.7avg/96.7sr and along with her yearly T20I batting, this highlights how Plimmer has burst into a groove...
2022: 7.2avg/85sr - high score of 17
2023: 15.7avg/84sr - high score of 28
2024: 18.4avg/103.8sr - high score of 53
Plimmer is joined by the big-three as White Ferns batters with 80+ runs in the tournament and Sophie Devine is the only other kiwi batter with 80+ runs and a strike-rate over 100. Ideally, others aren't required to contribute but West Indies will be eager to challenge the entire White Ferns batting department which is still searching for steady runs.
Brooke Halliday (22 runs @ 91.6sr), Maddy Green (9 runs @ 128.5sr) and Izzy Gaze (5* @ 125sr) finished off the innings against Pakistan fairly well. White Ferns are winning games and this may fill these players with confidence to play their roles, although this is still a weakness that could be exposed by West Indies. With so many games against England this year, the stats below are from December 1st 2023 to include the series against Pakistan...
Maddy Green: 17.46avg/99.1sr - high score of 43*
Brooke Halliday: 15.14avg/93.3sr - high score of 33
Izzy Gaze: 14.3avg/112.5sr - high score of 51*
Four bowlers have bowled in all four games with Rosemary Mair, Lea Tahuhu and Eden Carson joining Kerr. Here are their stats using the same December 1st 2023 starting point...
Amelia Kerr: 27w @ 16.4avg/6.6rpo
Eden Carson: 15w @ 19.4avg/6.9rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 14w @ 24.3avg/8.1rpo
Rosemary Mair: 11w @ 22.2avg/6.3rpo
White Ferns can get extra seam overs from Devine, Jess Kerr, Molly Penfold or Hannah Rowe. Penfold and Rowe haven't played a game at the T20WC though, while Devine and J-Kerr have combined for 5 overs without a wicket. The funkiest selection decision will be Leigh Kasperek vs Fran Jonas, especially after Jonas was given another crack against Pakistan.
Jonas bowled 3ov @ 8.3rpo vs Australia and then took 1w @ 4rpo in 2ov against Pakistan. Kasperek took 2w @ 6.7rpo in her only appearance of the tournament against Sri Lanka, with these two have equally as impressive records against West Indies in T20Is...
Leigh Kasperek: 10w @ 12.8avg/7.1rpo
Fran Jonas: 7w @ 10.4avg/3.6rpo
Here is how the White Ferns bowling attack has looked for each game...
vs India: J-Kerr, Carson, Mair, A-Kerr, Tahuhu
vs Australia: Mair, Carson, Jonas, Tahuhu, A-Kerr, Halliday
vs Sri Lanka: Mair, Carson, Tahuhu, Kasperek, A-Kerr, Devine
vs Pakistan: Mair, Carson, Tahuhu, Jonas, A-Kerr
Enjoy our cricket coverage? Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts. You can also Buy Me A Coffee to show your support.
Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email newsletter with bonus content. Sign up here!
Peace and love.