Calm Down a Bit….
2
By The Spotter
Amelia Kerr is a unique, very young talent and that was a quite jaw-dropping all-round performance for the White Ferns in the 3rd ODI versus Ireland. Of that there’s no doubt.
BUT…the actual realities of all this glory are a bit stark, to be honest. In the cricketing equivalent of the Texas Chainsaw massacre, the White Ferns sliced Ireland into little pieces of clover by victory margins of 300 runs or more over the three matches. The Ferns scored 400+ in every innings, with 490-4 in the first clash. Check out all the stats from the 1st and 2nd games and see that our proud chest-thumping is a bit cringeworthy.
Ireland are no match for anyone that matters in the world of women’s international cricket. They sit last by a mile in 10th of the internationally-ranked member nations. They have 504 ranking points. Bangladesh are easy-beats and they sit 200 points higher on 704.
(scroll down a bit to locate the ODI table– they’ve somehow screwed up England’s points, but trust me, they sit second).
New Zealand are third ranked on 6,900 points. That means we can say that NZ are literally almost 14x BETTER than Ireland, based on those calculations.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that 1,000 ranking points equals the equivalent of being 50 runs a match better than the opposition (a conservative estimate, I reckon). The metrics would then read that the White Ferns are close to a 325-run better team per ODI innings than Ireland, which, coincidentally is around the average margin of victory across the three encounters.
Of course it doesn’t really work that way ( well; obviously). The main point being that massacring abject Ireland and it becoming so newsworthy is really just a bit embarrassing considering the gulf between the two teams.
Just because the Ireland men’s side has made strides over the last decade does not mean that gets translated to their women’s team.
Extolling Kerr is fair enough, but the disproportionate eulogising has been silly. Would we wax lyrical if Ross Taylor decimated the Counties 2nd XI bowling attack in a first-class match? Of course we bloody wouldn’t. And I don’t see a lot of difference in the comparative standards relating to Amelia’s innings. Perhaps the term ‘World record’ is the reason for all the,umm, delusion.
To reinforce the argument- Ireland’s best single bowling performance in their ODI history was against that well-known superpower of world cricket, Denmark.
And no, I’m not a wet blanket. More like a realist (and occasional watchdog)
Cheers @ante meridian etc. To clarify: I did say right at the start she is very young- i was implying that the feat is even more impressive considering her age- would have thought that was obvious (obviously not).
And the hypothetical bit about Ross Taylor; perhaps the comparison wasn’t quite right, but tried to illustrate the merits of the Irish bowling attack. Whatever happened to balance in reporting anyway, good grief. David Leggat has been the only one prepared to say something. Sell the silly headlines and be damned. Nonsense.
And interestingly, even though sportsfreak disagrees with me, it was he who added the short paragraph about the Irish women’s team not improving as the men’s side have done. probably to add more fuel to my argument.
Forgot to mention that my wife said I was being churlish in the above response (the Japanese translation of that word, anyway). She’s most probably right..