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Two defeats, two wash-outs and now one game that decides almost everything. New Zealand reach the halfway point of their World Cup group stage needing a victory over India at the DY Patil Stadium on Thursday. The numbers are stark: only three points from a possible ten, and hardly any cricket played in the last 12 days. Yet captain Sophie Devine wandered into her pre-match media duties looking more relaxed than rushed, armed with the dry humour that has carried her through 20 years at the top.
“Thanks for not saying I’m old. I appreciate that, experienced is nice,” she grinned when someone asked how all that time in international cricket might come in handy this week.
Key facts first
• New Zealand have beaten India in six of their last eight women’s ODIs at World Cups; India’s win–loss ratio against them sits at 0.2, the lowest they have versus any opponent.
• Both sides have stuttered: India have dropped three on the bounce, New Zealand have played only one completed match since 10 October.
• The forecast is mixed; another wash-out would all but end the White Ferns’ semi-final hopes.
‘Underdog badge’ stays on
Devine accepts the billing. “We’re obviously under no illusions that India are still the favourites, without a doubt. And we will wear the underdog badge with pride, as Kiwis often do.” The grin never really left her face, but she offered genuine sympathy for the hosts.
“We’re really stepping towards that pressure,” she said. “In all honesty, I can’t begin to imagine the type of pressure that the Indian team is under. I know when we played at a home World Cup [in 2022], the pressure that we felt to perform in front of our home crowd was at times overwhelming. I can’t imagine what that’s like with a billion people tuned into the TV screens and the expectation and the weight that’s on their shoulders.”
In Mumbai, most of the 45,000-plus crowd will be partisan. Devine shrugged it off. “These are the moments that you want to be playing cricket in – a pretty much knockout game against India in India at a World Cup.”
Momentum hard to judge
New Zealand’s last completed fixture was an 82-run loss to Australia. Since then, rain has ruined two matches, and a couple of training days have been washed away as well. Match sharpness is therefore unknown, although Devine pointed out that plenty of her squad have spent the last 18 months in franchise cricket across three continents.
“Some youngsters that we’ve got, they’ve still played cricket under different pressures and have had to perform at different stages,” she noted. “It is such a cool opportunity. This is why you play high-performance sport, it’s why you play international cricket. To be put under the most intense pressure and see how you stand up.”
Spin likely to dominate
The DY Patil surface has tired after a month of use, bringing slower bowlers into play. New Zealand trained with that in mind on Tuesday, focusing on strike-rotation rather than power hitting. Amelia Kerr, already into double figures for wickets, is central again; so too is the left-arm spin of Fran Jonas, who may replace a seam bowler if conditions look especially dry at the toss.
Psychological edge?
Asked whether historical results give her side an advantage, Devine was typically straight. “Yeah, ask me after the game tomorrow because I think that’s generally the way it goes, isn’t it?” Then a brief nod to past experience: “We can get confidence from the fact that we’ve played them in pressure situations before. But tomorrow’s a new game, everyone starts on zero.”
India’s camp, meanwhile, is nursing bruised egos after three defeats. No one from their side spoke on Wednesday, but word from the nets is that Harmanpreet Kaur batted for nearly two hours, searching for tempo on a surface offering variable bounce.
Opportunity for the sport
“To me that’s just a really exciting opportunity to not only showcase the women’s game, but showcase New Zealand cricket,” Devine added. “And as you mentioned, we’ve had a great record, not just females, but males as well, of playing India in these sort of tournaments.”
The forecast
Rain, again, sits in the background. Another abandonment would leave New Zealand relying on other results and net run-rate gymnastics. When reminded of that possibility, Devine rolled her eyes. The quote that followed was trademark Devine – blunt, faintly comic – and then she was off to training, still looking utterly unflustered by what the next 24 hours might bring.
One way or another, Thursday will tell us whether experience, underdog spirit and a slice of deadpan Kiwi humour can keep a World Cup campaign alive.
