After a hat-trick of defeats, India find themselves in a precarious situation at the ICC Women’s World Cup and are in danger of not qualifying for the semifinals of their home event. It is a situation that New Zealand captain Sophie Devine can relate to, as the White Ferns missed out on a place in the final four in their home tournament last time in 2022.
“This is pretty much a quarter final and we’re really stepping towards that pressure,” Devine said in the press conference on Wednesday. “Look, in all honesty, I can’t begin to imagine the type of pressure that the Indian team is under. I know when we played at a home World Cup, the pressure that we felt to perform in front of our home crowd, in front of our own country was at times overwhelming. I can’t imagine what that’s like with a billion people tuned into the TV screens and the expectation and the weight that’s on their shoulders. I’ve got real empathy for them having to try and deal with that while also to go out and perform.”
Devine said NZ, for their part, are looking forward to the challenge of playing at what should be a packed venue in such a high-stakes match. And said White Ferns will be the underdogs.
“For us, yeah, I think it’s a really exciting challenge. We actually just spoke in a team meeting just before that. These are the moments that you want to be playing cricket in a pretty much knockout game against India in India at a World Cup. So, we’re incredibly excited. We’re obviously under no illusions that India are still the favourites, without a doubt. And we will wear the underdog badge with pride, as Kiwis often do. We know the pressure that India are under at home, but we’re just going to go out there and again, control what we can control and make sure we stick to what we do well as a Kiwi side.”
Devine, a veteran who has been around for nearly two decades now, looked back at the 2013 edition to illustrate how far the women’s game has come.
“When I think back to the 2013 World Cup that we had here in India over 10 years ago now and some of the crowds, there probably wasn’t too many people sitting in the stands to think now the noise and the atmosphere and the energy that’s being brought by the Indian people has been awesome and everyone knows that, especially as cricketers, India is the place that you want to go play because people just love the game so much,” the 36-year-old said.
She then, for the second time in the press conference, explained once more how that puts added pressure on the Indian team.
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“The Indian team at the moment have got a lot of pressure on them to be able to perform and to match up to those expectations that are now starting to fall on them as they’re I guess, yeah, as they grow in popularity and as they become household names with that becomes a lot of pressure to be able to perform and stand up to that. So, yeah, I think it’s great for the women’s game. That’s what we all want as female cricketers is to be put under the same scrutiny as the men as whoever’s playing.”
“I think it’s really awesome to see the growth of the women’s game. I still think there’s a long way to go in terms of not just on par with men, but overtaking the men’s game. I think there’s real opportunities there and we’re seeing that with how quickly the women’s games developed, probably even over the last five years.”
