Way to go, Ferns

A toast to the NZ women's team is in order after their achievement of making the final of the recently concluded World Cup. I've never been much of a follower of the women's game, though I do occasionally check on the White Ferns and the Indian team (factbite: Nooshin Al-Khadeer, the offie who wasn't selected for the World Cup was a senior in school), so the defeat in the final won't rank as high a disappointment as the loss of Stephen Fleming's men in that 2007 semi-final. However, I did end up keeping a tab on the World Cup, and it's been enjoyable. Good on the girls for living up to their billing as a top side, and for fighting it out in a final where they were outclassed at key moments by England.

Following this World Cup through Cricinfo was actually a nice throwback of sorts for me, in terms of the way I tracked the fortunes of the side. It took me right back to the first half of the 90s, for back then, games featuring the kiwis were barely ever telecast in India so I had to find expression in my youthful fandom by relying on magazines (especially the Sportstar) and newspapers. Just as in 1993 when I had to be content with mental images of how Danny Morrison might have ripped through the Aussies at Eden Park, I now had to rely on pictures and Cricinfo bulletins to imagine the Ferns blasting the Pakistani bowlers for 373, or expertly chasing down India's 200-odd total.

Truth be told, the NZ women have been rather good at upstaging their male counterparts while operating in parallel. When Mike Atherton's England toured the country in 1997, there was this benefit game during which opening bat Emily Drumm had a hand in Athers' dismissal. England were going through a difficult phase at the time, so the media absurdly saw it fit to pile on Atherton by constantly reminding him of this dismissal at the hands of Miss Drumm; but later in the test series, the kiwi bowlers found it near impossible to dislodge him, not least in the final test at Christchurch where England chased down 300 plus on the back of his century. More recently, wicketkeeper Peter McGlashan his debut against the Indians in the one-day series - a week after younger sister Sara had played a matchwinning knock against the Aussies.

And there was this one moment of humour I recall reading about when the then Ferns skipper Maia Lewis was interviewed by the Sportstar upon her side reaching the final of the 1997 World Cup in India, at a time when the Black Caps were performing rather miserably in Australia. During what was a mostly hackneyed round of questioning, Lewis was asked if they looked to the men's team for inspiration, and she replied, with a laugh, "I wouldn't say their performances have been inspirational, not necessarily so...".

In the light of a much improved performance by the Black Caps in the ongoing Napier test, perhaps Daniel Vettori should be asked if the women's side's performance in the World Cup was the inspiration?