Kerr praises Devine as key for White Ferns
- Dave Worsley
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
She has a huge following in India, but Amelia (Melie) Kerr has pointed at White Ferns captain Sophie Devine as the player to watch for New Zealand.
Ahead of their third game of the 2025 Women's World Cup Kerr said that the all-rounder Devine has been switched on from the get-go and has been in scintillating form with the bat, scoring a hundred and a fifty.
LATEST HEADLINES:
Devine scored a century in the opening game against Australia and then 85 against South Africa in the second one.
The 36-year-old has scored 197 runs and is at the top of the run-getter charts at the present.
At the pre-match press conference, Kerr said the way Devine has started the tournament has been outstanding, paying tribute to her leadership and discipline and said Devine can change a game single-handedly and teams fear her.
"Yeah, Soph's obviously a world-class cricketer and she's just been so switched on. I think obviously her last 50 over World Cup. But yeah, the way she started this World Cup has been outstanding. The 100 and then the 80-odd against South Africa."
"And I just think her leadership and her discipline; she's showing with the bat to get into the fight and work really hard. It's not necessarily been easy all the time. We've had to rebuild and she's really stepped up and it's nice when you've got someone like her in form because teams fear her and she can win a game on her day," said 24-year-old Kerr.
Despite the form of Devine, New Zealand have struggled, losing their first two matches.
Ahead of the game against Bangladesh, Kerr believed the mood in the camp is good. The all-rounder said that they can't keep dwelling on the losses and look at the positives from the first two games.
"Yeah, obviously it's not the way you want to start a tournament with two losses, but the dressing room's good. I think we've had some really good conversations and there's been still a lot of positives to take out from the first two games.
With tournaments, you can't dwell on things. You've got to move on. And yes, you want to learn from what you can do better, but also remembering the stuff that we've done really well to keep trying to continue to do.
And you've got to stay positive because there's always a game around the corner and we know that we're still really in this World Cup," said Kerr.
The White FErsn play Bangladesh in their third match from Guwahati on October 10.