Canterbury Magicians’ coach Stephen Cunis is on tour with the White Ferns in the UK and www.blackcaps.co.nz will have exclusive discussions with Cunis about the trials and tribulations the White Ferns and their support staff goes through during the next month on the road.
The last few days have been a bit up and down in terms of results. Having fielded poorly in the first ODI a lot of effort was shown at the following training session to remedy that and it paid off in the latest match. The girls still weren't fantastic in the field but the improvement made a huge difference. Winning the latest match was really important to the squad as in most tours, bodies and minds can start to tire and a lift that a win gives players and support staff is priceless. Suzie Bates was brilliant. She bowled, fielded and batted extremely well and took a lot of responsibility in getting us past their score. She was backed up by Nicola Browne, Sophie Devine and Lucy Doolan in the bowling department and was in two handy partnerships with Sophie and Sara McGlashan. Aimee Watkins was, as usual, very astute in the field and made some great decisions in terms of field placements and bowling changes. There is a good feel in the camp at the moment and the girls are looking to improve in every match so we give ourselves the best chance of winning against what is a good English team.
We had a lot of support yesterday from the Ipplepen Cricket Club. Jamie Watkins is the overseas pro at the club and brought about 30 of the club to the game. They were brilliant and their chants and singing certainly helped us. The bar staff certainly appreciated their support also!
The evening before the second ODI, Gary Stead, Pete Devine (Sophie's father) and I managed to jack up a game for us to play in, for an Ipplepen team in a T20 match. It was a great game and Steady scored 26 retired off 20 balls, I slogged 25 off 10 and retired but it was Pete Devine who really saw the team home with a solid 25 retired off 82 balls...the evening was great and Steady was the 9th Test player to play at the ground and he was certainly the crowd favourite. Although Pete tried telling the spectators that he was dreadfully unlucky to have not played for NZ, he still entertained everyone and flew the Kiwi flag with passion!
The highlights of the match were: playing on a beautiful ground with a lot of character and history, watching the opposition captain storm off after losing, the extremely reliable and serious umpiring from a little bloke who wore white jeans and playing cricket with a 13 year old legend named Harry Lewis! I hope the odd Ipplepen club member reads this as Steady, Pete and I certainly appreciated their hospitality.
We now travel to Derby for the next ODI...finally, thanks for all of the support and messages that we are getting from home.
