With the ICC Women’s World Cup fast approaching, what better way of preparing than playing the current world champion?
The WHITE FERNS have six games against Australia, three Twenty20s over the Tasman in Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide, before hosting the Southern Stars in ODIs in Auckland, and twice in Mount Manganui.
Coach Haidee Tiffen knows all about playing Australia, having gone into battle 54 times against the Southern Stars herself.
“I loved playing Australia. I knew that as a player and as a team we were going to be tested in all areas,” Tiffen reminisced.
“My best memory from the many matches against Australia, outside of World Cups, would be when we won the Rosebowl in 2000. It was my first series against Australia and I remember we won the first two games in Palmerston North. When we won the second game, the entire team including support staff danced in the changing room.”
Last summer the rivalry was even, with the Southern Stars taking out the One-Day series 2-1, while the WHITE FERNS won the Twenty20 series 2-1.
Tiffen knows that every match Australia is tough, especially with the world cup around the corner.
“We know when we play against Australia that we are in for a real battle. Our rivalry for the ODI Rosebowl trophy goes back to 1985 and whilst Australia have had the edge over us historically, we have had some wonderful, challenging series against them.”
Tiffen noted that the recent international and domestic schedule had kept the players busy and ready for the upcoming challenge.
“If we look back to our season we’ve had an away tour of South Africa in October, a home series against Pakistan in November, the players then went into domestic cricket from December to February and six of our players featured in the WBBL. The players have had a great deal of cricket so we are happy with our preparation leading into the series.”
“This is a key series to the lead into the World Cup. It is a good indication to see where we are at against the current World Champions. Our world cup campaign plan has been well thought out and after this series we will review and look at what we need to fine tune.”
The WHITE FERNS play their first ODI against Australia on the 17th Feb (4:00pm NZ Time) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Four of the six matches against Australia will be live on SKY Sport.
Full schedule
