'Frustrated' Sophie Devine calls on WC organisers to start matches early if forecast predicts rain

Colombo, Oct 18 (PTI) New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine on Saturday expressed her frustration after her side's second washed-out match on the trot in the women’s World Cup, saying that given the weather forecast, the game against Pakistan could have been started earlier in the day.

New Zealand and Pakistan split points after incessant rain forced abandonment of the contest for the tournament's fourth such result at the R Premadasa Stadium here. It was also a second washed-out game each for both the teams in the competition.

While the outcome kept New Zealand at the fifth spot in the points table, making their remaining two matches -- against India and England -- do-or-die games, it also pushed South Africa into the semifinal as the second team after Australia.

“I hope you were watching that South Africa game the other night, where they were off for five hours and still managed to squeak in a game. You must feel we were in a decent position today, just needed the rain to hold off, and unfortunately, it didn’t happen today,” Devine told the broadcaster after the match.

“It’s extremely frustrating. You wait four years for a World Cup, and to have rain play such a massive part in it, it is disappointing. I think, hopefully, in future editions, they might consider starting games earlier in the day.” “We’ve obviously seen here that the rain usually comes in the afternoon, so there’s a real opportunity to play these matches at 10:00 or 11:00 am and actually get a game in,” she added.

Devine said teams want to compete against the best in the world and do not want to see their matches washed out like this.

“Because that’s what — all the teams want to play cricket. You’ve waited so long to be here, you want to test yourself against the best, and to be scuppered by rain is a real shame for me,” she said.

“It’s pretty flat. We really wanted to play today. We were up and about for this match, and we just wanted to be out there playing cricket,” Devine said about the New Zealand dressing room.

However, the New Zealand skipper said her team is clear about their task in hand -- to win the remaining matches in order to be in the hunt for one of the two remaining places left for the semifinals.

“Now, the situation is extremely clear, we just need to win both games, starting with India in Mumbai. It’s a big challenge, but we’re really excited about it. I know the girls don’t need any extra motivation to take them on,” she said.

“We’ll head back to India tomorrow and look forward to those challenges. We were so focused on these games here in Colombo, we wanted to give them our full focus. But luckily, we’ve got a few days now before the next game against India, so we’ll prepare really well.” New Zealand will take on India at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Thursday.

“We’ve had some good experiences against them recently, including in the World Cup last year, and we’ll draw on those. But we also know they’re huge favourites, playing at home, in conditions that suit them, with threats throughout the lineup,” Devine said.

“But again, this is what you want, to play against the best teams in their own backyard and put yourself under pressure. We’re really looking forward to that challenge,” she added.

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, whose team is languishing at the bottom of the points table, said they will look to put their best foot forward in remaining two matches.

“As a bowling unit all are happy, but we need to improve our batting. We have a couple of matches. We will like to play good cricket in the next few matches, win the next two matches and try to end our tournament on a high note,” she said. PTI DDV PDS PDS