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The 2023 edition of the Women's T20 World Cup is underway in South Africa and eight teams are competing for the prestigious trophy. The defending champions Australia, along with England, New Zealand, and India are the four teams everyone expected to reach the semi-finals before the start of the tournament.
While the other three teams have played amazing cricket and won their first two matches, the White Ferns have struggled to win a single game so far.
In fact, they have been bundled out for totals like 76 and 67. The batters have not been able to adjust to South Africa's slow pitches and the team finds itself in a rather worrying situation in this T20 World Cup. Lea Tahuhu and Amelia Kerr are the only players who have clicked for them.
Let's look at the 3 biggest reasons behind the White Ferns' failure in the T20 World Cup campaign so far.
#1 Form of Suzie Bates
The prolific New Zealand opener and former captain Suzie Bates is the mainstay of the team's batting line-up. With 139 matches and 3,683 runs in this format, a lot depended on her shoulders.
However, she has failed to open her account against both Australia and South Africa. This broke the momentum of the entire innings and the team couldn't recover while chasing in both matches. Bates needs to hit form again if New Zealand aim to revive their World Cup campaign.
#2 Sophie Devine's lack of runs
The skipper and one of the best all-rounders has had an ordinary T20 World Cup so far. After she scored a duck against the Aussies while opening the innings, Devine moved herself down the order to no. 5, against South Africa. But that didn't help the cause as she made a sluggish 16 off 26 balls.
To add to that, she has not bowled those useful overs of medium pace. Devine needs to step up her own performance to keep the team motivated.
#3 Failure of batting order at T20 World Cup
The batting order has changed quite a bit between the two games but it has not made any positive difference to the result. In fact, they have managed to score two of the White Ferns' lowest five T20I totals in this T20 World Cup campaign itself within a gap of three days.
They now stand at the NRR of -4.050, which means that there will only be a miraculous turnaround if New Zealand make it to the final four. Batters need to rise to the occasion and Amelia Kerr will need all the support around her from the seniors as well as youngsters.
