Adaptive cricket in focus for Sophie Devine's New Zealand at Women's T20 World Cup
Sep 21, 2024
Wellington [New Zealand], September 21 : New Zealand Women skipper Sophie Devine opened up on how New Zealand will look to ace the UAE conditions during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024.
The searing hot conditions that have historically favoured the spinners in the UAE will be a far call from the cloudy, seam-friendly environs of New Zealand. Devine stated that her side is working on ways to adapt to the Asian conditions.
"We have been specific and clear with how we want to play and what we think is going to work in those conditions. We reflected and reviewed how we'd played and what we'd worked on previously and have had a real eye on what the conditions are like," Devine said, as quoted by the ICC.
Devine put an emphasis on the scoring rates to ensure that New Zealand has the upper hand with the bat while restricting those opportunities for the opposition.
"There's been a real focus on spin bowling, which I'm sure everyone is going to focus on, but for us it's about strike rate and scoring shot percentages. With the bat, we're wanting to be really busy at the crease, we know that the conditions might be tough, so every run is going to be valuable. On the flip side, with the ball we want to be as accurate as possible. Staying on stumps and making opposition players play the most difficult shots; this has been a key focus for us," the player said.
Discussing their group, Devine is excited about facing challenging opponents and believes that these contests can bring the best out of her team.
"When you've got India and Australia, as well as Sri Lanka, it's going to be a pretty tough pool to progress through, but we certainly love our chances coming up against those sorts of teams," Devine concluded.
New Zealand will begin their campaign against India on 4 October in Dubai. Their match-up against Australia takes place on 8 October in Sharjah.
