The White Ferns are T20 World Cup champions. Aotearoa has competed in 10 Women's T20 World Cups and have an illustrious history in World Cups but this was their first championship in this format. The first three T20 World Cups featured eight teams and New Zealand made the final of the first two tournaments, finishing second behind England in 2009 and Australia in 2010.

White Ferns went 4-1 in the first two T20 World Cups and then made the semi-finals in the 2012 tournament, finishing 2-2. While they were knocked out at the group stage for the 2014 T20WC with 10 teams taking part, Aotearoa went 4-1 through that tournament and two years later they had a 4-1 record in making the semi-finals of the 2016 T20WC.

Then came a lean patch where New Zealand didn't progress past the group stage in 2018, 2020 and 2023. Aotearoa dropped away as a top-tier T20I team for five years. This period stretched through three different coaches (Haidee Tiffen, Bob Carter, Ben Sawyer) and 36 different players as White Ferns were overtaken by other nations investing heavily in women's cricket.

The coach Sawyer era started with a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in 2022. White Ferns went 3-2 at the Com Games before defeating England in the bronze medal game and they started with three consecutive wins (India, South Africa, Sri Lanka). White Ferns have won four consecutive T20Is three times during the coach Sawyer era...

Later in 2022 they had an away win in West Indies followed by three wins vs Bangladesh in Aotearoa.

Early in 2023 they had a win over Bangladesh at the T20WC followed by three wins in Sri Lanka.

After losing to Australia in this T20WC, White Ferns went won four consecutive games including the semi-final and final.

Everyone knows about the T20I losing streak in 2024 before the T20WC. That doesn't do justice to the journey that the White Ferns were on though as they were 16-21 in T20Is under coach Sawyer ahead of the T20WC, which featured a 2-14 run in T20Is since the start of last summer. White Ferns didn't just lose all their T20Is against England and Australia this year, they had a T20I series loss to Pakistan in kiwi conditions last summer.

This made covering White Ferns one of the most draining exercises of the Niche Cache sports beat, while also amplifying the magic of their T20WC success. Some folks crumble after a few tough days, some teams descend into chaos when losing becomes a habit. The core group of White Ferns leaders showcased their mana in how they maintained a positive outlook and rallied their team to glory. The leadership required to keeping this team focused and optimistic can’t be overlooked, perhaps offering something for us all to learn from when having a difficult period.

Throughout the tournament, senior players contributed to winning cricket without the dominant performances we had come to expect. Sophie Devine whacked 57* @ 158sr and Lea Tahuhu snared 3w @ 3.7rpo in the win over India. Suzie Bates scored 15+ runs in every game of the T20WC and scored 20+ runs in five of the six games. Maddy Green is one of four kiwis to play 100+ T20Is for Aotearoa so she deserves to be put in this senior player group, saving her highest scoreof the tournament for the final where she hit 12* @ 200sr.

All of those contributions are impressive in the context of wining a T20WC, although we can't measure how these players drove a team culture that persisted and grew through adversity. These players inspired others to perform in the biggest moments and that was just as lovely as buckets full of runs/wickets.

Four Leaders in T20 World Cup Semi-Fina/Final

• Suzie Bates: 26 runs @ 93sr, 32 runs @ 103sr

• Sophie Devine: 12 runs @ 100sr, 6 runs @ 60sr

• Lea Tahuhu: 6 runs @ 75sr | 1w @ 11rpo, 3ov @ 7rpo

• Maddy Green: 3 runs @ 75sr, 12* @ 200sr

Amelia Kerr is also a leader of this team at 24-years-old…

Amelia Kerr in T20 World Cup Semi-Final/Final

• Semi-Final vs West Indies: 7 runs @ 64sr | 2w @ 3.5rpo

• Final vs South Africa: 43 runs @ 113sr | 3w @ 6rpo

Kerr's highest score of the tournament was in the final and she took 5 of her 15 wickets in the finals stage. Before the T20WC, Kerr took 2+ wickets in three consecutive games just once and she is currently on a five game streak of 2+ wickets, all of which were T20WC games: 4w vs Australia, 2w vs SL, 3w vs Pakistan, 2w vs West Indies and 3w vs South Africa.

Kerr is one of the best women's cricketers in the world and when rocking the Aotearoa glasses, she is the best women's cricketer in the world. For New Zealand, Kerr is already fourth in T20I runs and second for wickets. No surprises then that Wellington Blaze have won five of the last six Super Smash championships.

Aside from Kerr shining in the biggest game, the most impressive aspect of the White Ferns T20WC success is how younger/emerging players found a groove. This was already trending in the right direction during the group stage but it was most evident in the semi-final and final...

Semi-Final vs West Indies

• Georgia Plimmer: 33 runs @ 106.4sr

• Brooke Halliday: 18 runs @ 200sr

• Izzy Gaze: 20* @ 142.8sr

• Eden Carson: 3w @ 7.2rpo

• Fran Jonas: 1w @ 5.2rpo

• Rosemary Mair: 4ov @ 4rpo

Final vs South Africa

• Georgia Plimmer: 9 runs @ 128.5sr

• Brooke Halliday: 38 runs @ 135.7sr

• Izzy Gaze: 3* @ 100sr

• Rosemary Mair: 3w @ 6.2rpo

• Eden Carson: 1w @ 5.5rpo

• Fran Jonas: 1w @ 7rpo

• Brooke Halliday: 1w @ 4rpo

Plimmer, Halliday and Gaze flashed their strokes before this T20WC without scoring enough T20I runs to boost White Ferns batting consistently. Plimmer (53) and Halliday (38) had their highest T20I scores in this T20WC, while Gaze had two 20+ scores in 21 T20I innings prior to the tournament and registered her third in the semi-final.

To lay out their respective run-scoring explosions, here is their T20WC mahi and their T20I career records after the tournament (T20WC | T20I Career)…

• Georgia Plimmer: 25avg/119sr | 15.2avg/98sr

• Brooke Halliday: 19.2avg/124.6sr | 13.9avg/97.2sr

• Izzy Gaze: 28avg/127.2sr | 14.4avg/105.8sr

It's a different story for Rosemary Mair and Eden Carson as they are both exceptional T20 bowlers. Mair was a consistent presence in the White Ferns T20I team from 2019-21, then she bowled just once in 2022 and didn't play in 2023. Mair didn't play in the series loss vs Pakistan and then took 4w @ 42.2avg/7rpo in her six appearances prior to the T20WC.

Carson played eight games in 2022 followed by 12 and 11 games in the next two years. She has taken 10+ T20I wickets in all three years, averaging below 20 and conceding less than 7.2rpo in all three years. In the lead up to the T20WC (December 1st onwards), Carson played eight games with 10w @ 19.6avg/7.2rpo.

Kerr, Mair and Carson were the only kiwis to take 6+ wickets in the T20WC. Along with Tahuhu, they were the only players to bowl in all six games but Kerr, Mair and Carson were the only White Ferns to bowl 20+ overs in the tournament.

• Amelia Kerr: 22.4ov, 15w @ 7.3avg/4.8rpo

• Rosemary Mair: 23ov, 10w @ 11.7avg/5rpo

• Eden Carson: 23ov, 9w @ 16.3avg/6.3rpo

• Lea Tahuhu: 16ov, 5w @ 22.8avg/7.1rpo

White Ferns can't chill out as they have a ODI series in India that is part of the Women's Championship starting on Thursday night. This series is part of ODI World Cup qualification with the top six teams (including hosts India) rolling into the 2025 World Cup and the bottom four teams moving into a qualification tournament to fill two more World Cup spots.

Aotearoa is currently sixth with an 8-8 record. After the ODIs against India, White Ferns finish their Women's Championship campaign with three games vs Australia that will all be played in Wellington. White Ferns only need a few wins from these six games to seal the sixth spot and even if they miss the automatic qualification, they would be favourites to win the qualification tournament.

As important as these games against India should be, nothing feels quite as exhilarating as winning the T20 World Cup. Even the prospect of this success propelling White Ferns to a consistent spot among the best teams in the world takes us away from basking in T20 World Cup glory. Soak it in because the smallest nation in the top-tier of international cricket has won another major tournament and Aotearoa continues it's journey as the best cricketing nation in the world.

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Peace and love.