New Zealand Women had a very unimpressive outing in the ODI World Cup 2025 for a team that was the defending T20 World Cup champions. It was partly due to their form and also because of the weather, which did not play according to them.
However, they had in their own hands to try and prolong their stay in the tournament by beating the hosts India in what was a virtual quarter-final. But the Silver Ferns lost, causing their captain, Sophie Devine, to bemoan the early exit from the tournament.
Lamenting the nature of unpredictability that sports carries with it, Devine said that her team was unable to reap the rewards of the hard work that they did while preparing for the mega event.
Sophie Devine is a rare blend of honesty, humility and humour. And that authenticity came through in her confession, "I thought I was going to get through this press conference without crying."
“We had fate in our hands. We lost the first two games, put ourselves under pressure. We lost today. So, it's hard to reflect when nearly half your games have had weather impacted by it,” Cricbuzz quoted Devine as saying after her team lost to India by 53 runs.
"But we haven't been good enough. And that's really tough because the work that this group's put in over the last 12 months has been phenomenal,"added the 36-year-old.
Reflecting on the nature of the game and how it doesn’t always reward hard work, Devine said, "That's what sucks about sports sometimes, is you can work harder than anyone in the world, you can do all the right things, but it doesn't guarantee your results out there when it matters.”
“So that's probably going to be the hardest pill to swallow in this campaign. I'm not sure what else we could have done as a group to be better prepared, to be fitter, to be more connected, I don't know.”
"But we've got to dissect it and figure out where we went wrong and where we can improve, which, yeah, sucks. Unfortunately, there are not many other ways to describe it. The work that this group put in – no one deserves anything, not just in cricket, but in life – but sometimes you wish that the good guys got the results. But, not this time."
New Zealand have had experienced players like Devine, Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu in their squad for quite some time. However, these players will look to have one final go at their title defence at the 2026 T20 World Cup in England.
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That's What Sucks About Sports: Sophie Devine Distraught After Early World Cup Exit – Cricket.com
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