150 runs to glory: the savvy plan to keep White Ferns’ T20 crown

2026-01-28 - 16:04

Late last year, former White Fern Liz Green and current head coach Ben Sawyer put their heads together and came up with a cunning plan – to help New Zealand defend their T20 World Cup title this year. Sawyer and Green, now the head of women’s high performance at New Zealand Cricket, had been discussing what they wanted this summer’s Super Smash competition to look like, based on the level of T20 cricket they saw being played internationally. “All the data and stats were telling us 150 to 160 is now the average T20 score internationally,” Green says. “So when we started the campaign planning for the T20 World Cup, we wondered how we could generate momentum in the Super Smash competition to align with the standard of play we’re now experiencing from an international point of view.” Sawyer went to work analysing the stats, which showed the average franchise scores in Super Smash over the past few seasons had been around 115 to 120. “So we looked at how we could incentivise the Super Smash teams to play an attacking brand of cricket,” says Green. On the eve of the competition last month came the announcement that fit the brief: a bonus point for any team scoring 150 runs or more (regardless of batting first or second), or achieving a run rate of greater than 1.25 times that of the opposition, in the second innings. “We could have gone further, but we thought that 150 would challenge our domestic set-up,” says Green. And as the Super Smash enters its finals weekend tomorrow, is she happy? “I don’t think we could have got a better result in terms of the influence it’s had on the Super Smash competition because we’ve seen players put their hands up.” Liz Green has worked hard to build a new pathway for future White Ferns. Photo: supplied As a former White Fern and Black Stick, Green knows all about putting your hand up in elite sport. Since she was appointed head of women’s high performance in November 2022, she’s worked tirelessly behind the scenes to put the building blocks in place to ensure both the present and future are bright for the women’s game in this country. “The first thing that hit me square between the eyes was the lack of pathway,” Green says. “And we didn’t have much consistency in the playing opportunities we were offering and how we were developing our talent through the White Ferns. Green, who played cricket 48 times for her country between 2010 and 2017, took on the women’s high performance role just six months after the biggest upheaval there had been to the White Ferns contract list – with Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu, Frankie Mackay, Leigh Kasperek and Thamsyn Newton missing out, and youngsters Fran Jonas, Molly Penfold, Izzy Gaze, Eden Carson and Georgia Plimmer coming in. Although the freshened squad won bronze at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games that year, there were still plenty of observers who thought the balance wasn’t right. “We got a lot of criticism early on for picking White Ferns with potential, that hadn’t necessarily been developed through our domestic system, or pathways system. So that’s one thing I’m really proud of, that the pathway has been introduced,” she says. “It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but with consistency and support from New Zealand Cricket, there’s a lot more consistency in identifying talent and making sure they have those playing opportunities.” Opportunities including regular A squad tours, with a group travelling to England last year, and another tour to Sri Lanka this coming May. North vs South series have also become a regular fixture on the playing calendar – a further steppingstone for domestic players looking to become internationals. Another former White Fern, Sara McGlashan, is the female pathways coach who works closely with these players to prepare them for higher honours. “It’s our responsibility to make sure we’ve got world-class athletes playing for the White Ferns and they’re playing really good cricket,” says Green. She and White Ferns head coach Ben Sawyer are constantly looking at the international game to understand the standards New Zealanders need to achieve to be competitive. With the defence of their T20 World Cup in England less than six months away, finding a way to score more runs, more consistently, has been identified as a key factor. That’s when they came up with the bonus point incentive. The stats this season certainly back up their plan. Over the course of 27 completed games, there was a total of 19 bonus points divvied out. In the final game between Auckland Hearts and Central Hinds last Monday, the Hearts needed to win with a bonus point to make the finals, which take place tomorrow and Saturday at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval. After the Hinds batted first and posted the highest total at Kennards Hire Community Oval this season (125), the Hearts knew to secure the bonus point, they’d need to chase down the target in 16 overs or less. After some rain, the adjusted bonus point target was 120 in 15.1 overs, which they reached with eight balls to spare – with powerful batting performances from their top order of Izzy Gaze (59 off 39 balls), Prue Catton (26 off 27) and Maddy Green (26 off 12) doing exactly what this new initiative wanted to achieve. The Hearts now play the Northern Brave, who finished second in the table, in Friday’s elimination final, with the table-topping Wellington Blaze watching to see who they’ll meet in Saturday’s grand final. The Brave have never won the title, with the Hearts lifting the trophy only once, way back in in 2013/14. In contrast, the Blaze are the defending champions and have won six of the last eight editions of New Zealand’s premier T20 competition. “I think the three teams have earnt the right to be there,” Green says. “Good luck picking the winner of the elimination final. Playing women’s cricket on good wickets with good facilities means we’re in for a cracking couple of days and I can’t wait to sit there at Hagley Oval and watch some good cricket.” With batters rising to the challenge and bowlers out to stop them, a much wider group of players are now putting their names in the hat for international honours, which is a welcome problem for the White Ferns selectors. “All of a sudden from a selection point of view, the talent is hitting us square between the eyes because players have realised they’ve been brought into this as well,” says Green. “It’s a little thread that we’ve pulled at, but it’s actually been a massive lever that’s had a positive impact on the game here in New Zealand.” There’s a busy international schedule through to July and Green and Sawyer know full well that injuries will mean plenty of players need to be available. Three T20Is and three ODIs against Zimbabwe kick things off at home at the end of February, followed by five T20Is and three ODIs against South Africa in March and April. They head overseas for three ODIs and three T20Is against England in May. Then the defence of their T20 World Cup starts on June 14 against the West Indies in England. “I feel our talent pool is growing. It’s not a big talent pool, but we’ve got squad selections coming up for games against Zimbabwe, South Africa and a T20 World Cup,” Green says. “For the first time we’re not talking about 12 or 13 names, we’re taking about a group of 25 to 30 athletes across our White Ferns and New Zealand A players.” The foundations Green identified when she took the role are certainly starting to be built and the future is looking bright. Now is the time for these players to shine.