New Zealand lost to England by one wicket, falling agonisingly short of defending 203 after five wickets for just 20 runs put them on the verge of a surprise victory
New Zealand are "standing on the edge of a cliff" after their "gut-wrenching" one-wicket defeat against England, according to Amy Satterthwaite.
Defending 203, the White Ferns, who lost both captain Sophie Devine and senior pacer Lea Tahuhu to injury during the match, took five late wickets for just 20 runs to reduce England from 176 for 4 to 196 for 9 and put themselves on the verge of snatching two unlikely points.
However, Anya Shrubsole and Charlie Dean clung on to seal the win and leave New Zealand on the brink of elimination from the 2022 Women’s World Cup.
The tournament hosts are currently sixth in the table, level on points with India and England, with one game remaining. However, both India and England have a game in hand over New Zealand, meaning they are now reliant on other results – in particular, Pakistan ending their 13-year losing streak in World Cups to take points off England and West Indies - to determine their fate.
"It’s never a nice position when you’re relying on other results and I think coming into today, we felt like we still had it in our control," said stand-in skipper Satterthwaite. "It’s pretty gut-wrenching to get very close and not quite get over the line and feel like you're standing on the edge of a cliff, borderline out of the competition.
"We've come a long way and done a lot of hard work over the last 12 to 18 months, and we genuinely believe we can compete with the top teams. There are some pretty devastated human beings in the changing rooms at the moment."
Sophie Devine was injured during the first innings [Hannah Peters/Getty Images]
Batting was the problem area for New Zealand today, with their Jess Kerr (14) the only player outside of the top five to score more than six runs. However, while identifying their lack of runs as the root cause of their defeat, she also acknowledged the role played by injuries to two key players – Devine, who was motoring on 37 from 42 balls before retiring hurt against England, and Lauren Down, who broke her thumb on the eve of the tournament to reduce her side's batting depth.
"The frustrating part is I really felt we turned a corner against India in the series before this tournament and we started putting some consistent totals on the board around 260-270," she said. "We talked a lot against India about producing big partnerships and match-winning partnerships but across our World Cup games, there haven’t been too many 80, 90, 100-plus partnerships.
"Some things haven’t gone our way – today with Sophie's injury, we lost Lauren coming into the tournament – but I still back the people that were in the line-up to produce bigger scores than we’ve seen. Maddy [Green] and myself were just starting to gain a little bit of momentum and my wicket was really poor timing. After that, it was a little like dominoes.
"[At the time of] Sophie’s injury, she seemed to have the bit between her teeth and the momentum she and Amelia Kerr were building was really nice. We were in a great position, and it probably came at not a great time for us. But at the same time, I would have backed our line-up to produce a bigger total than we did."
However, she was full of praise for the efforts of the bowlers, in particular Brooke Halliday, who stepped in for Tahuhu, and Frances Mackay, who orchestrated England's collapse with career-best figures of 4 for 34.
"I don't think we could have done too much differently [with the ball], with Sophie not being able to bowl and Lea injured," she said. "We had to turn to Brooke, who hadn’t bowled in the competition, and I think the way she stood up, kept the composure and wanted the opportunity to be thrown in at the deep end, I was really proud.
"Frances is a real fighter and a team player. She wants to be in those moments and be the person who wins it for us. She'll probably be a little disappointed with her bowling throughout the tournament but she's a really quality player and I'm proud of the way she has stuck with it through some ups and downs."
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