A day of RECORDS for the White Ferns

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Dev Tyagi
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Series Preview: Ireland vs New Zealand

A record making day for White Ferns . ©Getty Images

We knew that Kiwis did fly.



But what made for some fascinating viewing was witnessing their flight into territories accustomed to seeing the homegrown take to the skies; such as the one evidenced in India.



Forget the onslaught you’ve been hearing about for the better part of your day. Forget about the record-tumbling Lady Ga-Ga equivalent of a cricketing feat, that’s left the world gaga about Suzie Bates and her White Ferns.



Let’s revisit the Mithali Raj-land a couple of weeks back in the day.



A fortnight ago, the Wankhede, witness to an enthralling, final ball finish in a one-off IPL contest stood up to applaud the effort of the White Ferns captain, Suzie Bates. This is when playing alongside New Zealand’s ever-smiling charmer where legends of the game- Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and many more.



The contest might have been between the Supernovas and the Trailblazer, but given her penchant for athleticism, the reach for boundaries (and those smartly collected runs) and the flair for taking wickets- it seemed Suzie Bates was an arbiter of sorts, presiding over a clamor regarding which side was better between the Supernovas or the Trailblazers.



It didn’t matter who won in the end. For it was cricket’s victory after all where Suzie Bates delivered a high-class all-round performance. Her two-for included a cracker of a timber disturbing medium pacer.



Akin to the rare moment where the juror decides the verdict by stealing the limelight of the game, Suzie Bates, it seemed, took the contest by the horns and turned it over. The winning team was dressed in blue.



But it was the Spartan in pink that shone brightly. Head and shoulders above others.



In India then, her batting included brute strikes. But none came harder and made the crushing sound of discontent than the ones Suzie Bates struck against Ireland on her way to a career-best 150 for the White Ferns.



Like an evergreen track on the radio that livens up the day, Suzie Bates’ heroics made one’s day back in India in the spiritual home of the country at Mumbai. And it veered away needless judgment and obscurity confounding the Women’s game thanks to critics on June 8, 2018, when she decided to destruct an Ireland that was caught napping.



You saw the likes of Afridi, Sehwag, Hayden, Gayle and in the most recent past- AB De Villiers, as part of sides that hurled titanic batting bruises against their naysayers.



But none of the leading legends of the men’s game was able to catapult their respective sides to a score in the whereabouts of 450. Forget the 460s or 470s.



Sadly, none of them was a Suzie Bates.



Gladly, none have to be. None will have the honour as did Bates, to lead their side to a gargantuan 490 in 50-over international cricket. Even as a bigger score might be collected at a later date, the summit of 490 massive runs will bow down to the White Ferns and Suzie Bates.



For cricket chose in one of it’s most able markswomen, the desire the reconstruct it's topography.



If you were a witness to a Suzie Bates-led assault that hammered Ireland then possibly there may not have been a dull moment, save the one where the camera captures the ball rolling past yet another patch of lush green grass.



The spectacle was intact. Bad ball, four. Good ball, four. Dot ball? What’s that?



Only the names against bowlers seemingly doing the customary- going for runs, changed.



In close to 6 decades of ODI cricket’s history never has the spectacle been achieved.



Only on computer games do cricket-frenzied kids score 490 or more in a team’s total. In fact, when they get tired, they move over. New Zealand today seemed driven by the idea of Ireland enduring them. They were insufferable. They were the Grizzlies of the women’s game.



In clubbing 64 boundaries and 7 sixes- they were a loose cannon that exploded like a shooting star.



This was real cricket. Suzie Bates had sensed blood on a flat YMCA cricket club pitch. The hurting was massive. The bowlers seemingly getting lashes, perhaps the entire idea of even challenging New Zealand’s White Ferns for a game having seemed to have drawn the wrath of a Bates-powered attack.



It wasn’t going to stop. The landslide of runs was constant and definitive.



Never before has any Kiwi batswoman smashed 151 in ODI innings.



Never before has New Zealand cricket echoed such unbearable beating on an opponent that in the process of administering Ireland what seemed a ‘shock therapy’, the side managed to beat its own 21-year record, of 455.



Supporting Bates, were Amelia Kerr- unforgiving and serene in her 45-ball-81- and Maddy Green- 77-ball-121.



Louise Little, Lara Maritz, Cara Murray registering hapless, condemnable bowling figures where the ‘runs conceded’ resembled a tall skyscraper built on contested, disputed land. Hence the criticism.



The current context of the Women’s game is one that’s familiarly feathered by the Midas touch of names like Mandhana, Perry, Niekerk, Mir, Kasperek, Wyatt and Rodrigues.



But akin to a classic Hollywood better, the name of Suzie Bates, shall forever be etched in minds of cricket lovers- whether those who attribute to a global sport gender stereotypes or those who can sense female power rising- as a legend who made batting look terribly easy if you were on her side and a painful sullied ordeal if you were opposing her.
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