“The biggest thing is that everybody chipped in,” Devine said. “I thought Hannah Rowe was excellent at the top, obviously Jess Kerr will be back in the middle, the spinners did a great job.
“I’m a little wary though of Suzie Bates thinking she’s going to be a golden arm now, so we’ll have to keep her in check,” he added with a faint, faint smile. “But just a fantastic team performance, and it probably validates the work we’ve been doing behind the scenes and I think when we get things right, we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
Bates, an experienced opener and part-time bowler, showed a knack for picking up important wickets in both series, but the performance of the entire bowling unit pleased Devine more. He also conceded a six in this match when injured seamer Rosemary Mair was missing after the T20Is ended. Seamers Rowe and Jess Kerr set up the win with three wickets each, while Amelia Kerr took 2 for 46 to bowl England out for 194 with 3.3 overs remaining.
“Obviously we still have a lot of work to do to stay in touch with Australia (and) India, but I think I would say winning cricket matches like that is a comprehensive win for us. Against a good quality side.”
Sophie Devine
“It’s been happening because we’ve been trying to build that bowling depth over the last 18, 24 months, (we have a lot of options now) and we bought Eden Carson today for another spin bowling option,” Devine said. “I thought Rosemary Mair was probably our bowler of the series, it was unfortunate to lose her to injury, but now we have players who can come in and perform, it puts us in a really good position in terms of putting. The pressure is on every player, but knowing that once you get in there you can really do the job. , to be able to perform the way we have, especially against a really strong England team.
“Sometimes we have to have a bit of perspective that what we’re asking them (the young players) to do is bloody hard and they’re not going to succeed every time. The confidence and belief comes as we’re there. Sticking with them and knowing they’ve got the skills they’ve got is how hard they work day in and day out and they can get belief from that. .
It was Devine’s powerful 93-ball century that sealed victory after New Zealand had slumped to 14 for 2, missing openers Bates and Georgia Plimmer – promoted for the injured Bernadine Bezudenhout. She shared an unbroken century with Maddie Green after a 76-run stand with Amelia Kerr. Needing 12 runs to win and reach his century, Devine smashed Charlie Dean over the deep midwicket fence twice in three balls.
“I was just trying to get out there a little bit and help the team I guess and lead from the front, so when I got the chance today, I really wanted to get down there,” Devine said. “I’ve seen how hard these girls have worked over the last two weeks in this series, and even though the results haven’t gone our way, I think the work behind the scenes is starting to show that we’re trending in the right direction.
“Obviously we still have a lot of work to do to stay in touch with Australia (and) India, but I think I would say winning cricket matches like that is a comprehensive win for us. Against a high quality side.”
And while her plan wasn’t to complete the match with two maximums, Devine particularly enjoyed looking Nate Schiver-Brunt in the eye. “I wanted to get the job done and be really ruthless with it, and then Nat Schiver-Brunt started chirping me and said, ‘You’ve got two shots, two balls, one crack.’ Got it, look, the way it went, I’m happy to finish the game with a few more overs to spare.
“The way she soaked up the pressure early in her innings, strategically targeted the bowler that suited her and was able to soak up that pressure and then put it on us, I think that was a really good lesson for us. The middle order and our batting group.”
Heather Knight in Sophie Devine
Both teams will meet again in England for three ODIs and five T20Is in June and July as they ramp up preparations for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year.
Before traveling to England, Devine said his team was anxiously looking forward to putting in more hard work to ensure that gains made at home were not lost.
“If I’m being honest we’re going to be absolutely beaten, and that’s what it takes,” Devine said. “We’ve identified a number of areas with both bat and ball and we’ve got to improve a fair amount to keep up with these top teams and play the style we want. A lot of balls are hit, a lot of balls are bowled and Lincoln and Mount Maunganui are doing that dirty, hard work in the pits, so to really get stuck into this group. And looking forward to working hard.”
Valkyrie Baines is the general editor of women’s cricket at ESPNcricinfo