Hamilton, March 10 New Zealand pacer Lea Tahuhu believes that Thursday's match against India was the first time in the ongoing tournament, their bowling attack clicked in unison. She added that playing in five ODIs against India before the World Cup meant they had some information about the players in the Mithali Raj-led side.
After making 260/9 in their 50 overs, New Zealand were pin-pointed with their line and length and never gave any room to Ind-a's passive batting order to score runs. Lea was the best bowler of the day for New Zealand, taking 3/17 in her ten overs and was also supported by Amelia Kerr, who took 3/56. Hayley Jansen took two wickets while Jess Kerr and Hannah Rowe had a wicket apiece as the economy rate of all bowlers was below 6.5.
"We had a bit of success against them in Queenstown. So, I was sort of looking at that blueprint and seeing what we did well, and we know that in this tournament, you've got to get sort of the big runs to stay in the game and then I think our bowling unit probably clicked for the first time in this tournament and it was nice to be able to put them under a bit of pressure there," said Lea in the post-match virtual press conference.
Talking about the tactical work gone behind in getting the better of India, Lea explained, "We do a fair bit of scouting leading into the games and obviously we played India in one T20 and five ODI leading into the series. So, we had a few bits of information about that. So, there's always a lot of work going on behind the scenes, especially with the likes of Sophie, Susie and Amy sort of putting their three wise heads together and then come up with some plans for us."
Lea also had a different role in the bowling order, becoming the first-change bowler instead of coming early in power-play. She stated that bowling in every phase of New Zealand's matches before had come in handy.
"I've bowled sort of anywhere. So, I think one of the things with this bowling order is that anyone can do sort of any job that they're asked to do. It's a little bit of a different challenge, but it's still nice to be able to put a group performance out there, no matter when you throw the ball."
"But if I had to guess I'd say they had three left-handers at the top of the order and generaly off spin's a good matchup. So, if I had to guess that would be where I think the thinking came from."
Lea was also grateful for the plans against India's all-left top-order coming good. In the first 20 overs, New Zealand took out Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and Yastika Bhatia to set the base for a successful defence of 260. "We only found out that they were going to be opening with two lefties when the toss was done. We assumed that Shefali Verma would be fine. So a little bit goes into it, but we've played them like I say numerous times so we have set plans for them and thankfully today that worked."
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