Devine hails 'outstanding' Plimmer in Sri Lanka victory
Media release
New Zealand captain Sophie Devine hailed the hard work and dedication of opener Georgia Plimmer, whose half-century helped the White Ferns to victory over Sri Lanka in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup fixture at Sharjah.
Plimmer hit 53 off 44 balls, leading New Zealand to victory by eight wickets, with Amelia Kerr (34 not out and two for 13) also making key contributions with bat and ball to keep hopes of their semi-final hopes alive.
The 20-year-old opener led from the front as the White Ferns comfortably reached the required 116 with 15 balls to spare and Devine was full of praise for her young batter.
“Georgia Plimmer was outstanding today, I am super proud of her,” said Devine. “The youngster coming out there, sticking to her strengths and taking the game on is exactly what we asked for. I am really happy for her today.
“She has worked incredibly hard. A lot of it has gone on behind closed doors and she has copped a fair bit of criticism which as a captain is pretty hard to see because you see all the work and the hours that she puts in behind the scenes.
“We have seen what she can do in the nets, she had a great knock against Australia in Australia and to see her confidence build from that is really pleasing.
“This whole group has so much belief not just in Georgia but in every player in the side. You have got to remember she is only 20 so she has a bright future ahead of her and if she can continue to do what she did today she is going to have an outstanding career.”
Plimmer’s contribution proved pivotal to securing what was ultimately a comfortable victory, meaning New Zealand head towards their match against Pakistan with hopes of securing a semi-final berth.
They will likely have a close eye on India’s contest against Australia on Sunday, with the result there set to determine exactly what New Zealand need to achieve but Devine has called on her side to just focus on themselves.
She added: “We know that winning the game was the most important thing. We will see how the result plays out tomorrow and then we have our final game against Pakistan. I think by that point we will know exactly where we stand and what is going to be required.
“I think it is really important for this group that we stay focussed and we stay present. We will celebrate tonight’s win but then we will go back to the drawing board for a really important game.”
Defeat for Sri Lanka brought an end to their tournament, with their losing all four of their matches in a difficult Group A.
Their total of 115 was their highest of the tournament but captain Chamari Athapaththu admitted her side knew they still need to more in order to compete for a semi-final place in the future.
“We are not playing our best cricket in this tournament,” she said. “Today we were a little bit improved batting wise but we needed another 20-25 runs definitely, because the surface is good for batting.
“I told them (the players) to play their fearless cricket, positive cricket all the time in the middle. We have nothing to lose, so we can just improve, we can now play fearless cricket.
“I said to myself, play my best cricket, play my fearless cricket all the time in the middle, and I executed better but it was not enough for the win.”
Sri Lanka arrived in the UAE in strong form but have been unable to translate that onto the World Cup stage, and Athapaththu admitted that increased expectations might have got to her players.
“We have played really good cricket in the last 12 months but unfortunately we are not playing our best cricket in this competition,” she added.
“Our expectations are very high, sometimes it is some kind of pressure for the players but as cricketers we have to keep it simple, that is the main thing. We have to play one game at a time.
“Unfortunately we lost our first game against Pakistan then our mindset was going a little bit down so we kept trying but it has not worked out in this competition.”