10 March - Hamilton - New Zealand player Lea Tahuhu post-match press conference

Reporter: Was Grace at the game earlier today, how important to you and Amy is that she is here with you wherever you travel in this tournament?

Lea Tahuhu: Yeah Grace was here earlier today and she was sitting up in the box watching the first innings there so look, it's always really special to take the field and know that your daughter's there watching. It's a pretty cool time in our lives.

Reporter: What was the thinking around the change in bowling order in terms of Frankie opening and you coming in first change?

Lea: Yeah It's probably more a question for Sophie to be honest, I just do what I'm told. But if I had to guess I'd say they had three left handers at the top of the order and generally off spin’s a good matchup. So if I had to guess that would be where I think the thinking came from.

Reporter: I guess a follow up to that. Did you enjoy sort of that new role today?

Lea: Yeah, look I've bowled sort of anywhere. So I think one of the things with this bowling order is that anyone can do sort of any job that they're asked to do. And yeah, look, it's a little bit of a different challenge, but it's still nice to be able to put a group performance out there, no matter when you throw the ball.

Reporter: How much of tactical work has gone behind the scenes - off spinners against lefties or Tahuhu coming around the wicket to left hand batters?

Lea: Yeah we obviously you know, do a fair bit of scouting leading into the games and obviously we played India in one T20 and five ODI leading into the series so we had a few bit of information about that. So there's always a lot of work going on behind the scenes, especially with the likes of Sophie Susie and Amy sort of put their three wise heads together and then come up with some plans for us.

Reporter: The 5 ODI’s in Queenstown must have been helpful. There's sort – for a bit of scouting and I guess to sort of work out that Indian batting lineup. What was the strategy like in terms of taking on that batting line up?

Lea: Yeah, I think we had a bit of success against them in Queenstown. So I was sort of looking at that blueprint and seeing what we did well, and we know that in this tournament, you've got to get sort of the big runs to stay in the game and then I think our bowling unit probably clicked for the first time in this tournament and it was nice to be able to put them under a bit of pressure there.

Reporter: How much discussion was there around the sort of the left hand dominant at the top of the order.

Lea: Obviously we only found out that they were going to be opening with two lefties when the toss was done. We assumed that Shefali Verma would be fine. So a little bit goes into it, but we've played them like I say numerous times so we have set plans for them and thankfully today that worked.

Reporter: You mentioned only in the series against India that you're calling Katey Martin - Tom Brady of the team. One stumping and one sensational catch today – how important has it been for Mattie to be on in this campaign?

Lea: Yeah, look, she's fantastic for us. She's an absolute ball of energy even at 37 years old. So look, it's pretty cool. You think about it that in the middle of two 39 year old’s, we've got a 37 year old and they're out there all performing at the same time. It's pretty special and pretty cool for women's game.

Reporter: Over the discussion to the halfway point - 260 on the board, you know, discussions I guess were - what were the discussions in that sort of break in between and obviously, spin coming out to start with?

Lea: Look, I think we actually thought we're probably 10 to 15 short and we looked a few out there and lost a few too many wickets in the backend and couldn’t capitalize on the last 10 overs with the bat - but we got a lot of good communication from the batters who had been out there and it was sort of a wicket that we thought you needed to just bowl wicket to wicket - you weren't going to go out there and rip through anyone with any pace. And then obviously, having the three left handers out there, to open with, did a fantastic job for us up the front there.

Reporter: I guess around your personal form and you must be sort of pretty happy with tonight's performance. And have you sort of seen yourself through these first two games and then obviously the next.

Lea: To be honest I'm probably a bit disappointed with my first two games. Sort of not where I wanted to be and to be able to go out there tonight and put a good performance on the board is a pretty nice place to be, did a lot of work in the nets yesterday with Jake BoRam and you know, nice to be able to bounce back from what I'd say was a pretty rocky start to the tournament for me personally.

Reporter: What was your assessment of the pitch - did it change out there in the second innings? And did you think - what did you think 260 in terms of a total?

Lea: Yeah, like I said earlier, I think we were sort of thinking we were 10 to 15 short but I don't think the pitch changed too much. Obviously it got a little bit dewey so it might have gone a little bit more for us in that second innings but it was a pretty good pitch any time there is 264 on the board you know that there's runs out there, that's for sure. So I think we did a good job to be able to restrict a really powerfulIndian batting order.

Reporter: Maybe not the complete performance in the field. A few missed catches out there. Where do you see the fielding of the side at the moment?

Lea: Yeah, I think with that fielding we’re going in the right direction. You know, you always want to take every chance and sometimes it's just not the way it happens in cricket and it's something that we worked really hard on and we'll continue to do so and hopefully we can up our standards as we go through the tournament.

Reporter: The games are coming thick and fast - Australia on Sunday. Is it a good thing to have a relatively short turn around?

Lea: Yeah, I think it is - we knew the drill coming into it. We knew that we were going to be you know, playing every three days, a bit of travel in between there as well. But that's all part of it. It's part of being a professional cricketer, and you just have to roll on with it. And especially if you get some good form under the belt you hope that you can just keep rolling with them.

Reporter: How are you enjoying tournament cricket I guess it says there's nothing quite like it as it were. The other games, you're watching the other games - they have an impact. You know we were checking out England from the nets yesterday - .

Lea: Yeah, look anytime you get to play in a World Cup for your country it's pretty special. You know, having all of the countries here in New Zealand is pretty amazing. And certainly keeping an eye on what else is going on. But you know that you've got a busy schedule and you got to make sure that you're recovering well. We get on a plane tomorrow morning, train the next day and then we're into things again, against Australia. So yeah, we're really enjoying it. It's a busy time but it's also fantastic.