T20 World Cup, New Zealand vs Bangladesh preview: White Ferns look to tackle spin threat

Dealing with spin will be key to New Zealand’s hopes of reaching the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup semi-finals but Suzie Bates reckons the challenge could prove a blessing in disguise.

The White Ferns fell victim to India’s four-spinner strategy on Thursday, with Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Radha Yadav all taking wickets to knock out their top order – including Bates – in their thrilling three-run victory in Melbourne.

And while Bates wants her side to be wary of Bangladesh’s spinning talents on Saturday, she knows her side have their own trick up their sleeve in 19-year-old leg-spinner Amelia Kerr. “It’s going to be key to play spin well on that wicket,” said Bates. “Amelia’s bowling will be key for us. That wicket out here has shown the spinners, Leigh Kasperek too, are going to be key for us moving forward.

“Bangladesh have some really quality spinners so we’re going to have to work on how we play against it. Every game is tough if you’re not quite at your best and any team can beat you. The loss to India shows us how important every single game is. Every game is going to go right down to the wire.

“Bangladesh is going to be just as important as the match against India and then hopefully we give ourselves a chance against Australia to get to the semi-final stage.”

While victory for the White Ferns would set up a must-win tie against hosts and defending champions Australia, their opponents Bangladesh find themselves in a different scenario.

Bangladesh’s catching under the scanner

Having lost to India and Australia in their opening two games, reaching the knockout stages is no longer in their thinking, but according to skipper Salma Khatun that was never their priority, Salma is urging her side to take their final two games as seriously as ever to finish as one of the top eight sides and qualify directly for the next tournament.

“Our target is to not have to play the World Cup qualifiers,” said Khatun. “We need to do very well in our next two matches and try to win them. Our opening two matches will definitely help us to prepare for the next two.

“It’s frustrating for me that we dropped so many catches against Australia. Our performance would have ended up far better had we managed to keep those so that is an area we need to work hard on going forward.

“Another big difference is fitness. We tried to cope with the situation and we would feel better if we had managed to post a higher score. We will take our lessons from these two matches and rectify our mistakes in our next two.”