20 March - Auckland - New Zealand player Amy Satterthwaite post-match press conference
Reporter: Firstly would you be able to provide an update on Leah and Sophie, how are they doing?
Amy: I haven’t spoken to them very much after the game, I think both of them are average but we’ll see in the next couple of days and we’re fortunate we’ve got 5 days before our next game, so we can see how they are before that last one.
Reporter: You're obviously mathematically out of it, but how do you view your chances now needing the results to go your way?
Amy: Yeah it’s never a nice position to be in when you're relying on other results and I think coming into today we felt like we still had it I guess in our control and it's pretty gut wrenching to get very close and not quite get over the line and feel like you're, I guess standing on the edge of the cliff, one line out of the competition.
Reporter: Lastly, for me looking at the lower order in the batting they struggled again losing eight wickets for 69 runs, but there's plenty of ability in that lineup. What do you think's going wrong?
Amy: Yeah, I think that's the frustrating part is I really felt like we turned the corner against India in the series before this tournament as a group and we started to put some consistent totals on the board around 260 -270 and everyone was playing a role superbly and obviously had some things not go our way. Today with the likes of Sophie's injury, we've obviously lost Lauren coming into this tournament, but I still get the people that were in the line up to produce bigger scores than what we have seen and sometimes we possibly get a little bit ahead of ourselves and think we need more than we do and some intimidations take it a little bit deeper to be able to get the score on the board - I thought Maddy and myself would have absorbed a little bit today and were just starting to turn a corner and gained a little bit of momentum and my wicket was really poor timing in that sense and unfortunately after that it was a little like dominoes.
Reporter: Obviously three very close losses – did you feel the side deserved to be on the other side of at least one of those results?
Amy: I think you always hope that you could be on the other side of those results and I think the biggest thing for me is we’re just proud of how the group stuck in each game and we've got things to look back on and where should we have done better - I think mostly probably with the bat but the way that we've really stuck it in and performed as a group - I think historically we possibly would have rolled over a little more so to really show that guts and fight regardless of what position the opposition were in and keep going I'm really proud of the group for doing it consistently throughout the campaign.
Reporter: How frustrating and critical were those two injuries?
Amy: I think in the moment you try and put them into one side and you just focus on what you're going to do with what's in front of you, and when you finish the game and look back - they're pretty pivotal moments in the way I think Sophie's injury at the time, she was looking at standing with the bat, seemed to have the bat between her teeth and was really looking to take the opposition on and I think with that momentum that her and Mellie Kerr were building was really nice and we were in a great position – unfortunately, Yeah, it's never nice to see anyone injured but someone of that caliber especially I think it probably came at not a great time for us but at the same time I would have backed our line up to still be able to put performance on the park and produced a bigger total than we did.
Reporter: I suppose ultimately those three close defeats look like being costly. Do you feel the side has fallen short of where it should have been in this tournament?
Amy: That’s an interesting question, I think coming into a tournament like this you always have predictions and where you think the team should end up and how they should go and it's the funny thing about World Cups is they can always be some interesting results on the day and I think teams have shown how close the women's game was getting now and you know the likes of South Africa for me, have been a team than I thought could have been near the top of the world for a while now, they’ve got a really well rounded side - I think West Indies on their day are still extremely dangerous, we know the quality that England are and so you know, you have to get a lot of things right whenever you're playing them - unfortunately for us we've only got 80% right at times against those teams and just that you know that 20% has really hurt us but you know, like I said we're really proud of the way that we sort of fought throughout those games and really tried to stay in it.
Reporter: A word on Frankie McKay – you have spent a long time even in domestic cricket - to the extent where she calls you her right hand - from where she was last year contemplating retirement to what she has done in this World Cup. Your thoughts on her?
Amy: I've played a lot of cricket with Frankie I think she's a real fighter and a team player - she wants to be in those moments like today – like the other day against South Africa, she wants to put her hand up and be the person that wins it for us and be that person in most situations. I think she'll probably be a little bit disappointed with her bowling throughout the tournament. She's a class act with the bat, we know that - she certainly could have put some really big performances on the park for us when we needed them, but she's just a quality player and I'm really proud of the way that she has stuck with it through some ups and downs I guess, throughout her career in terms of the New Zealand side of things and to be able to keep knocking on the door and get selection for this World Cup – I mean the way that she has performed particularly with the ball through this campaign – I'm incredibly proud of her efforts.
Reporter: If New Zealand have been batting well in the lead up to the World Cup as well. Can you put a finger on what went wrong in this tournament? Because we've seen that you guys have struggled with the batting more than bowling and today batting proved to be a massive letdown. So what is it that is affected New Zealand come to the crunch moments?
Amy: To be honest if I compare it with the India series to this campaign, I think it's the partnerships, I think we talked a lot against India about producing big partnerships and 100 run partnerships and match winning partnerships and I think, across our World Cup games, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but there can't be too many kind of 80-90-100 plus partnerships. And we probably got started, and then didn't really have that kind of killer Instinct, and like I say, take it to those big partnerships, then we were in a really strong position to allow sort of middle to lower order to be able to launch. And I think that was something that we did really well against India. And I think if we're honest in the last 12 months, has been is huge for this group. And if we look 12 months ago, with our batting performances, I think there is a lot of progress in the way that we've played spin, the way that we're being proactive using our feet sweeping and I think that was really pleasing. And there's probably times throughout this campaign where we probably the bowlers bowled to us just a little bit you know rather than just taking the brave, positive option, which I think we did really well against India and unfortunately in tournaments like this - you can't set back too much otherwise you’ll get found out.
Reporter: And lastly, about the bowling. We saw New Zealand turn it around almost after - in the last 10 overs with the ball. So what different could you have done with the ball in the middle overs, because it was the same bowlers who were giving different results at the death.
Amy: I don't think we would have done too much differently, to be honest for you, with Sophie not being able to bowl, and then Leah getting injured and not being able to bowl – we had to turn to someone lie Brooke who hadn’t bowled in the whole competition, and I think the way that she stood up, kept the composure and wanted the opportunity to, I guess, get thrown in the deep end - I was really proud of the way she did it and took it with both hands. And in terms of the bowling, I guess, decisions throughout the innings, I think you go with what you think is right in the moment, and it might depend on who's batting in the middle. But yeah, I wouldn't change too much. We knew that we were going to have to try and bowl them out. So you're not trying to save people from the backend because the game would have been gone - so had to throw everything at them and we got close in doing it.
Reporter: My question is that, what were the conversations like in the final 10 overs? It looked like you yourself, Susie and Frankie, were in the middle of it. What were those conversations like?
Amy: Yeah, Suzie and Frankie have kept in a lot of sides in domestic cricket. And it's just nice to be able to go pick their brains and bounce ideas off. And at the end of the day, you go for what you think is right in that moment. And ultimately, we were trying to take wickets and we were just talking about how are we trying to do it and making sure that we had that mindset and we weren’t being too defensive and making it too easy for them. So yeah, those discussions were mostly around how we were trying to get them out and what we thought the best bowling options were to the batters - we took our time, at times throughout – the umpires were getting in us to hurry up, but we knew it was a real crunch moment to be able to try and bowl them out and we had to make sure that we for our plans as good as we could.
Reporter: My question to u is, I mean, I'm sure there are 100 different what ifs that are going around in your head. Is it harder to take at this stage of your career - Defeat like this, I mean, a tournament like this where you came so close. Or? I mean, is it difficult for someone like an Amelia Kerr to take it as a player playing, you know, at the start of their careers - just in terms of how difficult is it to take such close defeats?
Amy: I think if you see our changing room at the moment it was difficult for everybody regardless of how experienced or old or young you are - I think everyone's devastated. We're such a tight knit group. And we really believe in each other. And we've come a long way and done a lot of hard work over the last 12 to 18 months. And we genuinely believe that we could compete with the top teams and win games of cricket and I think there's some pretty devastated human beings in the changing rooms at the moment and like I said it's irrelevant of age or experience and I think will reflect on others tournament at some point. And if we're honest, someone's already alluded to it throughout these questions but the batting was probably the thing that let us down the most, I think the ball has really tried to keep us in the tournament and fought extremely hard and we're really proud of it, but putting up scores of 200 to 220 Odd against world class opposition, unfortunately, it's not enough. And we need to find a way to get bigger totals on the board.
Reporter: So even Sophie had spoken before about how playing in different venues has been useful in terms of, you know, the players experiencing home conditions and all that. looking back in hindsight, would maybe the travel in the early part of the tournament - Did it play a role at all? I mean, you had to constantly adapt to different venues, different conditions, the feeling of being hoarse. Did that get nullified a little bit?
Amy: No, I don't think so. I think we knew for a long time what our schedule looked like and it would be very easy to look at things like that and use them as excuses, and we were determined not to do it. We made sure that we were really clear on what we had in front of us. And we knew how we were going to tackle it and I guess, tried to make sure that we got the rest and recovery and time away from Cricket when we could and amongst that schedule - And yeah, like I said, we knew what was in front of us before we started this tournament. So you planned for it and make sure that you sort of take that factor out of it. And I think, you know, we did say that the luxury of playing at home was that you know the grounds and someone had played at each ground we played at and for the most part most people had played at each ground and it gave us a lot of insight to the conditions and how we thought the grounds were going to play and I think was a positive thing.