11 February - Paarl - New Zealand player Suzie Bates post-match press conference
[Reporter]
I guess when we were talking about who could challenge Australia, NZ was one of the first names that came up, how big do you think the gap is between you and them given what we saw today?
[Suzie]
Probably not as big as today. Look I saw the way they came out was strong – even after us taking an early wicket, was really impressive and when they’ve got that depth in their line up they can just keep coming hard at you and we didn’t quite respond with the ball or in the field, so they probably got 20 odd over par in that wicket and then losing two early wickets is never ideal when you're chasing a big score.
That can happen in Twenty-Twenty cricket when you are chasing. You’ve got to keep going hard and sometimes you can fall short, but yeah we’re really disappointed with that, but we know we can compete with them much better than that, so fingers crossed we get another opportunity in this tournament.
[Reporter]
And then just in terms of chasing 170 here, it's not done often at this ground. Did you think it was possible given the conditions?
[Suzie]
Yeah I thought the outfield got quicker as the lights came on and it raced away and if we get one of our top five set against any team, we believe we can chase down that and look it was only eights you know we've made it probably look like we needed 20 you know but that's all in reflection and the nature of these tournaments we have to move on really fast and we all know that and look we'll reflect tonight but after that we're going to have to park it.
[Reporter]
How do you look at the tournament going forward now there's obviously a lot of talk about how dropping a game does make things very difficult you know in this sort of form of tournament but we have seen teams also turn things around after first up losses so how do you sort of talk to the team going forward?
[Suzie]
Yeah, I think the rest of the tournament is massive for us and look you don't want to drop two games in my opinion so we've got three games against teams that we think we match up really well to and that's World Cup cricket you can't expect to start slowly and you know necessarily make the quarter final so we've got a big big game against South Africa but if we win that we're on track to where we want to be for the semi-finals.
[Reporter]
A word on Amelia Kerr because she stood out both with the bat and the ball. You've seen her grow from that 16-15-year-old that debuted for New Zealand that has gone on to become the premier all-rounder spin bowling all-rounder in the side.
[Suzie]
Yes she's bowling the best I've ever seen her bowl her pace has got quicker which in 2020 cricket is ideal I'm not giving a lot for the batters to get under so she's come on even more with the ball and with the bat as well to bat in the top order for us and be that anchor in our middle order she's been brilliant along with Maddie Green as well they've really improved in the last 24 months together as a team and she's going to be one of the greats for New Zealand so hopefully we can give us some support with the bat because she's been doing a great job but yeah quality spinner and she's really mentored those two young other spinners and Fran and Eden and she's young herself but she's been the senior bowler for that spinning group so it's exciting to see how those three go in the future.
[Reporter]
And just charting her growth or her performance today against the backdrop of the mental health break that she took and the struggles she had on that front what do you make of her temperament as a young cricketer and how did the playing group the senior group especially support her during those troubling times and as she came back into the mix?
[Suzie]
Yeah it was really tough for a lot of us to watch her go through that but she was so brave in the way she dealt with it and I think that's what makes her so great is she's dealt with a lot already in such a young life so she's learned a lot she's a bit of an old soul now and she's got lots of advice for others and you know we were just there for her when she wanted to chat and still now like if you've been through something like that there's still good days and bad days and she's been I guess a massive role model in New Zealand for young people that struggle with that so I'm just so proud of how brave her and Sophie have been talking about those sort of things and it's really helped this group connect and make sure that we care for each other which is massive to Sophie as well so yeah I just - to see her go out there once she's dealt with all that and to be able to handle the pressure of being a superstar it's pretty cool to see.
[Reporter]
Final one from me, what is the best way to stop Allyssa Healy from scoring a match winning half century at the final game of the World Cup or at the start of the World Cup?
[Suzie]
Yeah, maybe that calf might pull up lame again yeah it's actually interesting now having played alongside Midge at the Sixers - you know sometimes I think she has a bit of white line fever but she's a great friend off the field and yeah I think you want to get her early because once she gets set she's one of the best players in the world so I think being able to take her wicker early in big matches is really key to beating Australia.
[Reporter]
Susie just to end on a positive Eden Carson's catch can you just tell us a bit about what she was like in the huddle after the wicket?
[Suzie]
Yeah, Eden's one of our best little athletes she zooms around the boundary and at point she's gun = so to start a World Cup taking a key wicket of Beth Mooney it really got the energy levels up out there it was just a shame we couldn't take more wickets throughout the innings but yeah she loved that and anytime she does something she has a huge grin on her face so I was expecting a six from her when she was out there with the bat she loves to tonk the spinners around in the nets.
[Reporter]
Question is Hannah didn't bowl today was there any particular reason behind that?
[Suzie]
Yeah, we sort of talked about her role and she is there as an option but we have three seamers and three spinners which I think gives us a really nice balance and if the ball's swinging Hannah will also be an option but today, I think Sophie felt like the other seamers and the spinners were the right matchups so yeah she's in the side as an all-rounder but when you've got seven options, it sometimes becomes tough to use everyone.
[Reporter]
So, my question is that do you guys think you conceded a lot of runs and then at the halfway stage were you confident that this total is chaseable and another one just to add on so not the start you wanted. How are you guys planning to boost back from this?
[Suzie]
I'll try to remember all those and the first question yeah, I probably think we gave them sort of 20 runs probably through our fielding and just not executing our plans with the ball so if we could have kept them to that 150 - 160 on that outfield may have been par but look it wasn't to be and yeah I think every time we go out to bat we believe we can chase that score down. How we bounce back look we're pretty good at that we know that in tournaments like this one loss doesn't define you and you have no choice other than to pick yourselves up and show some resilience and make sure that we turn up on Monday night and this group's very good at that and I know tonight there'll be smiles and laughing on the bus still because that's how we work best as a team and moving on pretty quickly