World T20: White Ferns (/Suzie Bates) On Fire
We love our skippers who lead from the front.
If you're a kiwi cricket fan, you should be paying as much attention to the White Ferns as you are to the BLACKCAPS. I mean, if you're sippin' on hateraide and don't want to follow the Ferns then at least follow Suzie Bates who is loving an epic run of form that has her ranked as the No.1 batswomen in the world to me.
The Ferns dispatched themselves of Ireland after beating Sri Lanka in game one as Bates whacked 82 off 60 balls. Bates opened as usual and was the last kiwi wicket to fall, in the 19th over and along with 47 off 34 balls from Sophie Devine, the Ferns set Ireland a hefty total of 178 to win.
The Ferns kept Ireland to a run-rate of 4.20 runs-a-over as Ireland could only manage 84 off their 20 overs. Erin Bermingham's leg-spin took 2/17 off 4 overs while Morna Nielsen, Leigh Kasperek and Devine all chipped in with a wicket each.
Bermingham didn't play in the first game as the Ferns went with Kasperek and Nielsen as their spinners, against Ireland however the depth was on display with Bermingham coming in to do a job. Lea Tahuhu was the most expensive kiwi bowler, conceding 24 off her 4 overs which isn't a bad thing with Bermingham and Devine conceding less that 5-rpo, Nielsen went at 3.25-rpo and Kasperek at 2.5-rpo.
The Ferns didn't have to use allrounders Amy Satterthwaite and Bates to bowl as the trio of spinners did an excellent job. But Bates...
After scores of 33, 54 and 54 against Australia in three T20Is in Aoteaora, Bates went to India and kept the runs flowing. In two warm up games against England, Bates scored 38 (and took 2/22) and 15, then we saw her take 1/13 and score 37 to open the Women's World T20 before this 82. Bates hit 7 fours and 2 sixes, scored at a strike-rate of 136.66 and now has 13 T20I 50s at a career strike-rate of 107.55.
Besides both enjoying 2-0 starts to their T20 tournaments, there's many similarities between how the BLACKCAPS and White Ferns have started. Both have young spinners who have impressed and both have changed winning line ups, this time around Bermingham was brought in and the confidence shown in the entire squad to step in and do their job is awesome to see.
The main difference between the two teams though is Bates, who is leading from the front for the Ferns. In Bates, the Ferns have a legit contender for the best batswomen in the world, someone who can win a game by herself. While we can't sleep on other performances and if the Ferns are to win this tournament they'll need contributions from others, if Bates can keep this up, she and the White Ferns could do something special.