After New Zealand’s loss to India in their second-to-last league match of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup, captain Sophie Devine spoke to the media with honesty, emotion, and pride. The defeat ended New Zealand’s hopes of advancing to the semi-finals and also marked the end of Devine’s ODI career with only the October 26 game against England to follow.
“I think that’s the game of cricket, if you don’t score enough runs, you don’t generally win games. It was a big total for us, but we had confidence in our side that we could chase it. It was an outstanding batting wicket, the outfield was quick, it obviously slowed up a little bit with the rain. Credit has to go to India today; they put a big total on the board.”
Despite the conditions, Devine lauded her batters for showing fight.
“The way that Brooke (Halliday) and Izzy (Gaze) batted was exceptional. Gave us a very small chance there, look today wasn’t our day.”
When questioned about her reflections and emotions, given that this is her final ODI World Cup, Devine was visibly emotional. “I don’t really want to think too much about it because I probably get quite emotional around it. But the way those girls went out there, I’m incredibly proud of where this team’s going. When you think about the likes of Izzy (Gaze), Brooke (Halliday), Melie Kerr, Eden Carson, the way that they’re starting to really grow into themselves, it certainly makes it easier when I do step away after the next game, not before.
“It is sort of (you feel) a bit like a proud mother, you have been involved in this side at New Zealand cricket for so long that you’re so invested. I’m going to go through a few different emotions over the next couple of days, but we’ll take time to reflect on that.”
Devine identified India’s batting partnerships as the turning point. “It’s always hard when you get a partnership of 200 plus, you’re going to be under pressure. I guess for the Indian line-up, they were able to come out and swing pretty freely and take the game on and they probably got a few too many.
“We spoke about things we needed to try and stay as close to the run rate as possible. And it’s hard because it jumps so quickly here. So, they’re all learnings for us. It’s frustrating and it’s gutting and it’s disappointing to lose any game of cricket, but especially when we still had a chance of making it through to this World Cup’s semi-finals.”
Devine admitted the loss was difficult to process, “That’s what sucks about sports sometimes, is you can work harder than anyone in the world, you can do all the right things, but it doesn’t guarantee your results out there when it matters. So that’s probably going to be the hardest pill to swallow about this campaign.”
“I think the really important thing for me is to be authentic, and not just for me or my group, but for you guys as well. I think sometimes people forget that we’re human beings and that we do have emotions. We’re not just robots out there that go and play and don’t have feelings and we don’t feel the criticism, and we don’t feel the hurt. The words that are said about us, expectations.
“It’s really important to remember that, but also we’ve got to own up to it. It’s the profession we’re in. Unfortunately, this right now is a bloody tough thing for me to do. But I also want to front up and still be really proud of what this group’s been able to achieve. But I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it sucks. Losing press conferences are probably the hardest ones to do, especially when you’ve been knocked out of a tournament. At the end of the day, there’s not too much positive words I could probably say about it, unfortunately. But that is what it is.”
As the press conference wound down, she shared, “I thought I was going to get through this press conference without crying. It’s tough, isn’t it? Because I know I’ve spoken about the weather, the weather’s followed us, jokes have been made about it. At the end of the day, you just want the opportunity to play cricket. Unfortunately, we had fate in our hands. We lost the first two games, put ourselves under pressure. We lost today. So, it’s hard to reflect when nearly half your games have had weather impacted by it. But we haven’t been good enough. And that’s really tough because the work that this group’s put in over the last 12 months has been phenomenal.”
As New Zealand gears up to face England in their final league game, Sophie Devine spoke about signing off on a high. “The work that this group’s put in, no one deserves anything. Not just in cricket, but in life. Sometimes you wish that the good guys got the results. We’ll pull ourselves up, we’ll dust ourselves off, and we’ll go bloody hard at these English people and give them a good run for their money. And hopefully we like everything out there on Sunday and we can leave with our heads held really high.”
Sophie Devine’s words reflected not just disappointment, but deep pride and resilience. Her journey, one that inspired a generation of New Zealand cricketers may be closing in ODIs, but her impact on the women’s game is far from over.
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