New Zealand’s players had hardly dried their kit from Wednesday when another Colombo downpour ended Saturday’s contest with Pakistan. Captain Sophie Devine admitted she was “extremely frustrated”, her side stranded mid-table with only half the match played.
“You wait four years for a World Cup and to have rain play such a massive part in it is disappointing,” she said at the presentation. “I hope that in future editions they think about playing the games earlier in the day. We’ve obviously seen here that the rain usually comes in the afternoon, so [there is an] opportunity to potentially play these games at 10-11am in the morning and try and get a game in. Because that’s what all these teams want, is to be able to play cricket. You’ve waited for so long and you want to test yourself against the best and to be scuppered by rain, it’s a real shame for me.”
Only one fixture at this tournament has avoided the standard 3pm start. Four of the nine matches staged in Colombo have been abandoned, three in the last week alone. Saturday’s no-result keeps New Zealand fifth; more galling for Devine, her bowlers had reduced Pakistan to 80 for 5 before the heavens opened.
“I thought we had a little bit of hope seeing the South Africa game [against Sri Lanka] the other night, where they were off for five hours, and managed to squeak a game in,” she reflected. “Look, we thought we were in a decent position, we just needed the rain to hold off and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us today.”
Decent position is fair. Opting to field in gloomy conditions, New Zealand struck early despite grassing two catches. Hannah Rowe’s heavy length and Fran Jonas’s drift gave Pakistan no breathing space, and by the 20-over mark five wickets were down. From there the skies darkened, covers arrived, and never left.
New Zealand now fly to India for must-win meetings with the hosts in Navi Mumbai on Thursday and England in Visakhapatnam three days later. Two victories would almost certainly bring a semi-final spot; anything less and net run-rate arithmetic could decide their fate.
“Oh, look, to be honest, it’s pretty flat,” Devine said of the dressing-room mood. “I mean, we wanted to play today, we were really up and about for today’s match. We just want to be playing cricket, so for us now, we know that the situation’s extremely clear. We just need to win both games, starting with India in Mumbai – so, a real big challenge for us – but we’re really excited about it. I know that the girls don’t need to be pumped up anymore to be able to take them on so, we’ll head back to India tomorrow and look forward to those challenges.”
Preparation for India has been minimal. The squad spent the past fortnight juggling training blocks with rain delays, and video work has replaced time in the middle. Devine expects that to change quickly.
“Not yet. We’re probably so focused on these games here in Colombo that we really wanted to make sure we gave it that full focus for us,” she admitted. “So luckily, we’ve got a few days now [till] our next game against India [on Thursday]. So we’ll certainly prepare really well and we’ve had some good experiences against them of late in terms of the [T20] World Cup last year and we’ll be calling upon those. We also know that they’re huge favourites playing at home, in conditions.”
Tournament officials insist the late-afternoon start prevents stifling midday temperatures, but ground staff privately concede the local monsoon pattern is better suited to morning cricket. Former Sri Lanka batter Chamari Athapaththu, now part of the host broadcaster’s panel, backed Devine’s call. “Logistically it’s possible,” she said on air. “Players would rather sweat for three hours than sit in a dressing-room watching puddles grow.”
Weather forecasts suggest Colombo may yet see more interruptions. For New Zealand, though, the journey heads west. Two clear days, two tough opponents, no margin for error. Simple on paper; tricky once clouds arrive.
