How New Zealand won the World Cup

There is a moment just before the final ball of the World Cup where the cameras have a close-up on Suzie Bates. She's smiling in the way that you do when you realize that the job isn't done, but the actual hard work and everything else is finished. There is no way you can lose.

She knew that she was just about to win a World Cup.

Bates is an absolute legend of cricket. She has played more games than any other woman. She has been a great batter and at times a phenomenal captain. She occasionally bowls as well.

There is almost no job that Suzie Bates hasn't done for New Zealand, even playing basketball at the Olympics and guarding Diana Taurasi. Going up against the USA basketball team and the Australian cricket team are two of the most difficult challenges in women's sport.

She has done all that, and become one of the best batters in the world, despite the fact that New Zealand have never allowed her to play a Test match. So many other players in this World Cup have been able to play some Test matches. Suzie Bates is going to be remembered as a legend, and she has played zero.

Not only that, like many players in this World Cup, Suzie Bates came from the amateur era. The only thing was that she never really noticed she was amateur. She always thought about herself as a professional, and she trained and prepared as hard as possible.

Then when the money came in, that was almost like a bonus to her. It allowed her to play for a few more years without having to worry about getting a proper job. She went off and became a franchise star. But she became that largely because when money came into cricket, the New Zealand side started to slip.

In 2009 and 2010, they were good enough to be in the World Cup finals. Since then, they've been a pretty poor side. 

And Suzie Bates has had to watch, as so many other teams leapfrogged New Zealand. But that's what the smile was about, right? She realized that just for one moment, she gets to sit on top. And not just of all those other teams that leapfrogged her, but Australia as well.

Coming into this tournament, everyone thought this was Australia's World Cup. Well, now and forever, it is New Zealand's and that's why Suzie Bates was so happy.

I had been following the World Cup closely, and the final was essentially weakness going up against weakness and strength against strength. New Zealand's biggest problem in this tournament was they hadn't made a lot of runs till the final. Their bowlers had bailed them out repeatedly, but they hadn't really managed to put that much scoreboard pressure on anyone except the first game.

But because that had been successful, let's assume that is what New Zealand would do again—knock the ball around, get themselves in a good position, and hope that Sophie Devine and the tail can put on enough runs at the end.

That is not what New Zealand did here. What they actually went about was more like Muhammad Ali's 'Rumble in the Jungle'. They were leading with their right hand. They decided to come out swinging.

That is a high-risk strategy in a World Cup, because if New Zealand lost two wickets in the first over, who knows what would have happened? Instead we saw boundaries, we saw runs, and it was really clear early on that South Africa didn't know what to do to slow them down.

When Bates was asked about it afterwards, she said that they allowed themselves to play with freedom. That's interesting, because we hadn't seen that all the way through the tournament. When you're trying to change the way that your team has been playing, it usually has to be done by senior players, because the junior players don't always feel as confident to go out there and be that reckless.

Suzie Bates showing that she was just going to try and whack the ball was a huge change. Have a look at what happened at the other end. 

Georgia Plimmer could not find a run when she was in England. The New Zealand team was in bad form for a long time. Not long ago, when you watched Plimmer bat, you wondered if New Zealand had just made a massive error.

In this World Cup, she was probably their best batter. Specifically, she went hard against South Africa at the top and changed their plans because of how well she struck the ball.

But while New Zealand haven't been doing this all the way through, the reason that they can do this is because they had a couple of top batters coming in next. 

Amelia Kerr actually hasn't batted all that well throughout this tournament. But in this game, the openers gave a head start. Suzie Bates kept going, and eventually Halliday would come in and join her as well. That allowed Kerr to completely control this innings and make sure that there wasn't going to be a low score.

Kerr's strike rate wasn't that impressive. And despite Suzie Bates' early strikes, hers wasn't great either. But their intent was, and what they also did was ensure that there were a lot of runs and that batters could attack from the other end.

Halliday scores a quick 38, and Amelia Kerr suddenly has enough runs to bowl to. That's really important, because while she hasn't been that good with the bat in this tournament, she has been the best bowler. Australia could not pick her wrong 'un in the game that they went up against.

She has just been sliding the ball through, getting people to miss it. Deandra Dottin was hitting sixes everywhere. When it looked like West Indies were going to be in this final, it was Amelia Kerr who got her out again. Almost every time they've needed her to be good, she has.

Lea Tahuhu did her best Liam Plunkett impression by whacking the ball into the pitch again and again and bowling a great over. The next one was bowled by Amelia Kerr, and the wicket that they needed was Laura Wolvaardt. And of course, she got it. Time and time again, when they needed a wicket in this World Cup, Amelia Kerr got one.

And that was it, because they could bat around Laura Wolvaardt. But the problem for South Africa was that none of their batters outside the top four had really faced any balls. In fact, their specialist wicketkeeper had not faced a ball before this final. Once Wolvaardt was out, they just didn't have the batting available to them.

While South Africa looked like the better team in this World Cup, New Zealand played to their absolute maximum when it came down to it. South Africa bowled wide, didn't bowl enough cutters and didn't field particularly well. They needed to be saved by their top four again, and Amelia Kerr didn't let that happen.

This is a team in transition. They have Rosemary Mair, Eden Carson and Fran Jonas—not exactly the biggest names in women's cricket, or even in New Zealand women's cricket.

Of recent times, New Zealand have really been struggling. We've covered them a lot on our live channel, just saying that we don't know where the future of New Zealand women's cricket is because their team was so dependent on Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates. Two of those players are moving on a little bit.

They came into this World Cup with 10 losses. And not just 10 losses, they didn't look like a particularly strong team for a long period of time. It was hard to see what their strength was going to be in this World Cup.

The batting wasn't particularly deep. Lea Tahuhu, who has been an incredible servant for New Zealand women's cricket, was no longer bowling with the new ball. Amelia Kerr's recent form hadn't been all that special. And of course, they were going up against one of the favourites in the first game.

They got themselves in a bit of trouble with the bat, and then Sophie Devine scored an unbeaten 57 off just 36 balls. She got them to a score that realistically, until this final, was probably the best batting effort they put in all tournament long.

In all the other games, they were under par. But their bowlers kept stepping up and that's why they got through to the final. And even though they didn't make enough runs in the semi-final, their bowling again got them over the line.

But it's also worth saying that things somewhat went their way. For instance, they're not usually a particularly good team when they go up against Australia. If they're ordinary against other teams sometimes, they're much worse than that when they play the Aussies.

The fact that they didn't have to play Australia in the final was absolutely massive. Not only that, they also didn't have to play England in the semi-final. The tournament just opened up for them. Even then, they still had to grit and grind to get through. There was a time, even in this game, where South Africa looked like they were back on top.

At almost every single turn of this tournament, when they needed something, they found it. That's what happened in the final. In the end, it wasn't even close. They were about 15 runs above par and South Africa never even got close to par.

New Zealand are the World Cup champions. There was a moment just after the game finished where Sophie Devine is standing in the field, walking really slowly, crying as Suzie Bates—her friend, teammate, and the person who has been through everything with her—comes over. They just meet in the middle of the ground and they are both in tears.

As optimistic and talented as they both are, I have to imagine that they had to think their chance to actually win a World Cup was not that high, with Australia being so dominant, India on the rise, England's great side, and even South Africa regularly making finals. They had to think this was probably their last World Cup, or at least one of their last World Cups.

And with their form coming in, there was no chance. It was almost a lack of belief that Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine were World Cup winners. I can't think of two other cricketers who've done this kind of work for their nation who deserve it any more than them.

In the semi-final, New Zealand were well on top after which Deandra Dottin made the game very interesting. But New Zealand dismissed Dottin, thanks to Kerr. However, it meant that New Zealand needed to defend 15 runs of the last over.

With all the bowling talent on the field, who did they throw the ball to? Suzie Bates. She hadn't bowled in the last 13 T20 games for New Zealand. And they weren't just getting her to bowl any over. They gave Suzie Bates the ball because they know her character, intelligence and that she was going to help them get over the line.

When she gets hit for four off the first ball, there's that moment when you think that Suzie Bates should not be the reason that they don't make this final. Of course, she then tears up the rest of the over. The West Indies go home, and New Zealand reach the final.

There is simply nothing that New Zealand cricket have not asked of Suzie Bates. And she has been stepping up for years. The only difference today is that when Suzie Bates stood up, she helped give her country a World Cup win.

But there is one way that the country can help Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and all the other players who won this World Cup. None of them have ever played a Test match.

Suzie Bates may be the best cricketer ever to have not played a Test match. The New Zealand women's team has just given their nation a trophy. It is time for their nation to make sure they get a Test match.