New Zealand women’s cricket team captain Sophie Devine feels “incredibly proud of the team” after trashing India in their opening game of the T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai.
As per the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 schedule, New Zealand Women and India Women are scheduled to face off on October 4 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
As expected New Zealand pulled out a victory in their opening game and made a strong start in their ICC World Cup campaign. Sophie Devine won the Player of the Match award for her unbeaten 57 with the bat which pushed the White Ferns to set the 160 runs target in the first innings of the game.
Rosemary Mair and Lea Tahuhu also played a vital role in the team’s victory as the duo bowled an exceptional spell which folded India for 102 and helped the New Zealand women clinch a 58-run victory.
During the post-match presentation, winning side captain Sophie Devine said “I’m just incredibly proud of this group. To put together such a comprehensive performance is something I’m proud of. We’ve been targeting this game for a long time now.
We take inspiration from the Black Caps as well. If you look at our powerplay, we’ve been getting some terrific starts. That’s what we wanted today – to put the pressure on the bowlers.
We spoke about 150 being par. Pleased to get 10 runs above that. Probably know them too well having played them recently. But it’s always a big challenge playing Australia”.
Speaking of the match, New Zealand Women won the toss and opted to bat first. Bates and Plimmer opened the inning and made an impressive opening partnership by scoring 67 runs for the first wicket.
Arundhati Reddy broke the opening stand by dismissing Bates for 27 in the 8th over while in the very next over Asha Sobhana dismissed Plimmer for 34 runs. While India was expected to continue their momentum, NZ captain Devine single-handedly scored an unbeaten 57 and led the team to score 160 runs at the end of 20 overs.
On the other hand, Indian batters struggled to withstand the aggressive bowling attack and failed to build a partnership. Women in Blue started to lose wickets a regular intervals and managed to score just 102 runs after losing all their 10 wickets at the end of 19 overs.
India Women fell 58 runs short and lost their first game of the tournament against New Zealand Women. With the victory, New Zealand moved to the top spot of the ICC women’s T20 World Cup 2024 points table with an NRR of +2.900.
New Zealand will play their next game of the tournament against Australia Women on October 8 in Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah.
READ: “Didn’t play our best cricket”, Harmanpreet Kaur on defeat against NZ-W in T20WC 2024
