The Women's ODI World Cup has seen one thriller after the other. The latest addition to this list was the game between New Zealand and England. The English side won the match by just one wicket, but the Kiwi captain Sophie Devine was proud of her team's efforts.
New Zealand did not get off to a good start. They lost opener Suzie Bates early, and Devine had to be retired hurt due to back issues. As a result, the middle-order batters were left with a challenging task to negotiate the spinners in the middle overs.
"I'd always want to be there, so incredibly proud of the girls to take it where they did. We knew we were 40-50 short on that wicket. We were talking last night about what it was to be playing in front of Eden Park. The girls are gutted but that's cricket. We lost 3 games by 2-3 wickets or a couple of runs here and there. If we win those, we are probably looking at a different story," said Sophie Devine in the post-match presentation.
"We have time now to look back and reflect on what we could have done differently. But the difficult thing is that there are probably a billion things we could have done differently over the course of the last 3-4 weeks but there are so many positives to take out. We have one more game left and we will get up for it as it will be our last opportunity to make New Zealand proud," she added.
After scoring only 203 runs in the first innings, the Kiwi bowlers came back with a strong response. Frances Mackay was the pick of the bowlers as she took four wickets, conceding only 34 runs in her nine overs. Jess Kerr did well to pick up a couple of wickets.
Chasing a relatively small score, England went on self-destruction mode in the middle. After reaching 100 runs losing only three wickets, they fell apart losing wickets in a cluster. However, with a couple of handy knocks they were able to reach the target with one wicket in hand. Natalie Sciver was the pick of the batters as she scored 61 runs.
Even though New Zealand failed to win the game, the captain was proud of her team's efforts. She said that she loves the energy of the group and was hopeful of better results in the future.
"Something really special about this group is that there's a real high level of care with this group, we genuinely like each other even though we might bicker at things like family. We love each other and this group might not be together once this tournament is over. We will enjoy the last couple of days together and make sure we got out with a bang," said Sophie.
"Lea's hamstring played up again, my back is what it is – it has happened before, probably a hint I'm getting old and time to move on but injuries happen and we have got to grin and bear it. Fingers crossed we can make it to the last game," she added.
The Kiwis are facing various injury concerns and would be hoping to overcome them before their next match against Pakistan. For England, this win means that they are still in contention to make it to the semifinals. However, they would need to win all of their remaining games to qualify for the knockouts.