Anything can happen in Women's World Cup, says NZ's Devine citing India-South Africa clash

Guwahati, Oct 10 (PTI) Buoyed by her team's first win in the ongoing Women's World Cup here on Friday, New Zealand captain Sophie Devine expressed hopes of a turnaround for the White Ferns in the tournament and cited South Africa's stunning victory over India.

Coming off losses to Australia (by 89 runs) and South Africa (by 6 wickets), New Zealand crushed Bangladesh by 100 runs here to record their first win in three matches, which took them to the fifth spot in the points table.

"Really pleasing for the side to open our account after a couple of frustrating games. We were good against Australia in certain phases but lost our way against South Africa," Devine told the broadcaster.

"Anything can happen in this tournament, we saw that last night," said Devine, recalling South Africa's come-from-behind three-wicket win over India on Thursday.

Devine, who has notched scores of 63, 85 and 112 in this World Cup so far, said she was running low on sugar being a diabetic amid humid conditions.

"I was running a bit low on sugar, as a diabetic you have to deal with that. It's a part and parcel of playing at this level," she said.

"It was really exciting to welcome Lea (Tahuhu) back into the side, she was outstanding today. We spoke about attacking the stumps and she did that, I think she lost around 6 kilos with the amount of sweat she lost but a really good performance from her in her 100th game," Devine added.

Brooke Halliday, adjudged Player of the Match for her knock of 69, said the bowlers New Zealand had trained against were not different from Bangladesh bowling attack.

"The perks of the last couple of days is that we've had a lot of net bowlers that were similar to the bowlers we faced today," she said.

"We spoke about the sweep shot, tried and practiced that a lot during our camp in Chennai. Just trying to expand my game and get a little bit better." "(It is) easy to bat with Sophie, wasn't easy to bat out there — the mental side of it was tough and then the physical side hit us. Sophie kept it clear and simple," she added.

Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana said she expects her lower order to bat better, even though it was their top line-up which cut a sorry figure with first six batters falling in single digits.

Sultana said, "Whatever we have done in the last games, we wanted to do the same positive thing here but we were not consistent." "Initially, we bowled really well but what we expected from Marufa (Akter) we didn't get it but all the spinners bowled really well. Till 30 overs, we were doing good but they batted well after that." "There are a lot of things we have to learn from here, because lower orders have won game for their teams. We wanted to play our best game but we couldn't capitalise today. We should sit and rectify our mistakes as a batting unit," she added. PTI DDV AH AH