Sophie Devine is proud of her players despite the White Ferns loss to Australia. Photo: AFP
Australia beat her team by 89 runs in their Cricket World Cup opener in India, but White Ferns captain Sophie Devine was proud of the fight and resilience of her players.
Devine scored 111, but the New Zealanders fell well short of Australia's imposing 326, being dismissed in the 44th over for 237 on a great batting wicket in Indore.
While the tail folded quickly after Devine was the seventh wicket to fall, she was pleased with the middle-order effort after the side lost openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer for ducks.
"Despite being two down for nothing, the fight and resilence shown to knuckle down, rather than throw away our wickets, is something I can be really proud of this group."
She noted that a couple of years ago the team would have "thrown in the towel'' in a similar situation.
They have long been dependent on big innings from Devine, Bates and Melie Kerr, but their policy of developing youngsters such as Plimmer and wicketkeeper/batter Izzy Gaze, who are both 21, has started to pay dividends over the past year.
Devine, like Tim Robinson, who scored a century for the Black Caps in a losing effort against Australia in the opening Chappell-Hadlee T20 series in Mount Maunganui last night, found the situation bittersweet.
"I'd throw it all away to make sure we won,'' said Devine on the Sky Sport broadcast.
At the later press conference, she expanded on her team's intent against the world champions.
"Results are important and we want to win, but the way we played tonight has been made me really proud," Devine said.
"I certainly know we can keep pushing the best teams in the world really hard, but also we can be at the business end of this tournament if we can make sure we are playing good cricket for longer periods of time."
The White Ferns' next game is against South Africa at the same venue in Indore on Monday night.
Devine said in between they would rest, recover and take stock of lessons from the Australia game.
"Taking on South Africa is going to be a huge game for us. I think we are really confident having played here now. I think we have seen some really important things that we will be able to learn and grow and make sure we bring into that game."
