New Zealand’s WHITE FERNS have gone into camp in Lincoln ready to meet Pakistan Women. But how much does Suzie and the team really know about this little-sighted opposition?
The first tour to India last year, the first tour to South Africa last month — and now Pakistan come here for the first time since 1996/97. The IWC framework is really opening up the world of women’s international cricket! What’s this experience going to be like for Pakistan, playing in a totally foreign country?
SUZIE BATES: “I know Pakistan will be pretty excited about touring here. I can’t imagine many of their players would have been involved in the 2000 World Cup [held in Christchurch] so it will be the first time a lot of them have been to New Zealand. I think it’s just really exciting, like it was for us going to South Africa and playing in their conditions, to be always playing different opposition now. I think it’s just growing the game more and more when the teams that perhaps haven’t toured as much in the past now have to tour every country and learn from conditions and learn from playing other opposition.”
You yourself have played Pakistan only twice in ODI matches, that said, you have scored a century against them — but how much do you know about the make-up of this current unit?
“Not a lot to be honest. Like you say, I’ve only played them twice and I’ve been playing for 10 years. So, it just shows how little we play them; and that would have been only at World Cups. Sana Mir has been around for a while and she’s a really talented off-spin bower who can bat as well; and Bismah Maroof has been able to score runs at World Cups in the past for Pakistan.
But that’s the exciting thing about it: you get so used to playing the likes of England, Australia, that you get really familiar with the players, whereas we’re going to have to look at footage in camp at the moment. The Canterbury Magicians played them in a warm-up game on Sunday, so Amy [Satterthwaite] got a good look at some of their players, but we don’t know a lot and it is just about making sure we respect that and do the analysis that’s needed. We’ve got footage of them playing in England, but that’s in different conditions again.”
Pakistan must have adjusted to Bert Sutcliffe Oval relatively quickly because they won by six wickets on Sunday.
“Yeah, I’ve spoken to Amy who was impressed by their batting and thought they had a lot of depth there. They won that easily, and they’ve only just arrived so that’s a good start from them, and I’m sure they’ll take a lot of confidence, knowing that we had a couple of players from our WHITE FERNS squad in that team. They’re going to be a tough side to beat, like any international side is these days. We’ve got five One-Day Internationals to compete against them and we did talk this morning in camp about just making sure that we do respect every opposition that we play. And it’s a big series for us in terms of qualifying for that 2017 World Cup.”
In terms of your own squad, talk us through the personnel changes after the successful tour of South Africa — and a brand new face among them this time.
“Liz Perry gets an opportunity back in the side. She’s been in and out of the side for a long time and has always had a lot of talent in the middle order. She’s come in for Maddy Green — a player who’s just scored her highest score, and yet we are able to leave out players that are performing. The same with Nat Dodd. Of course Sophie Devine is back after a little break and it’s always nice having her back in the group; and then we’ve got Amelia [Kerr, 16] who is our youngest player for a while. She’s pretty excited to be here and it was cool today having her around the group first day in camp. Everyone’s talked for the last couple of years about just what a talent she is coming through, she bowls leg-spin obviously which is exciting. When Erin [Bermingham] wasn’t available for this tour, it was nice to be able to give Amelia an opportunity at this level and see how her skills transfer. She’s going to be a star for the future, so it’s nice to get her in the group and for her to know what it’s about. But she’s pretty mature as a cricketer from what I’ve seen, she seems to have a really good cricket brain. I know she captains a lot of the teams she plays for and obviously growing up in a cricket family she has played a lot of cricket.”
Is it likely we will see her in action early in the series?
“Yeah I don’t think we would have picked her if we didn’t plan on playing her; with young players we want to see what she can do. With Erin unavailable, and Leigh Kasperek still out with injury, we’ve got Morna [Nielsen] and Amy as spin options, but Amelia is definitely in the mix for playing. So it will be good to see her get out there, and having someone like that in the team reminds you of when you made your debut. You remember all those feelings and the excitement. So it brings a bit of youth back into the team, because we do have a reasonably old and experienced group at the moment.”
Speaking of that, you’ve had great support in the last 12 months from Amy Satterthwaite whose form has been consistent with bat and now ball. What does Amy bring to a tricky situation?
“What people don’t know or see and what she’s always done is off the field where she’s always contributed with her analysis of the game. And, she’s always been someone for me to talk to about tactics and planning. Now that she is performing on the park as well, her confidence is growing and growing and she just brings that really level-headed experience in the top order. You can rely on her with bat and ball and, now that she has performed consistently, she’s in a really good headspace — and when your own game is going well, you’re more willing to help some of the other players out. She’s always had a very good cricket brain, so it’s nice to see her perform the way she has been, and it’s just brilliant for this group on and off the field.”
Obviously the focus of this series is once again largely on One-Day cricket — and that’s because of a big event coming up in England in June next year…
“Yeah, I think New Zealand Cricket has taken the opportunity to play as much One-Day cricket as we can leading into the 2017 World Cup. There has been a lot of Twenty20, not just for the New Zealand team, but for a lot of players with the advent of the Women’s Big Bash and Super League, so I think it’s been a smart move to make the most of the opportunities to play One-Day cricket. It will be nice to have that Twenty20 International in Nelson to finish off the tour, but to have 12 One-Dayers in a row [including the recent tour of South Africa] — I guess you measure what that’s going to be able to do for this group later on, when we are playing that big World Cup and games against Australia.”
You’re starting this series in Lincoln, what are the conditions like here and what are you expecting at Bert Sutcliffe Oval?
“I think that’s the beauty of playing at Lincoln — we have played here so many times, a lot of our batsmen have scored runs here, our bowlers have been successful, they are our conditions and the wicket’s always good. There is always something in it for the bowlers, but it’s always a nicely paced wicket and the outfield is always good to field on. The outfield is probably a little bit slower here in November than when we would usually play on it in February/March, but hopefully the weather will be good to us, because it’s always a good wicket to play on.”
