Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr go a long way back. Kerr’s old man was Devine’s first state coach in Tawa, Wellington, and a teenaged Devine was Kerr’s babysitter, watching her take first steps in the game. Having tagged along to her father’s coaching clinics with her siblings, Kerr saw Devine in action firsthand since the time she was a young toddler, long before the White Ferns team, and Devine in particular, came within striking distance of winning New Zealand what could have been their first-ever T20 World Cup title in 2010. After the initial heartbreak, a dream took shape.
“I was inspired to be a White Fern watching that 2010 World Cup which Sophie was at and from that moment I was at the nets with my dad pretending I was batting with Sophie and Suzie [Bates] and being in the team so young and playing with my role models who have been so good to me and two of New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketers,” said Kerr, Player of the Final and Player of 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, after guiding New Zealand to their maiden ICC title since 2000.
“I don’t necessarily believe you deserve things in sport, but if any two people do, it’s Sophie and Suzie. And I just think back to myself as a kid that was batting with Sophie and Suzie in the nets. When I was at primary school, in creative writing, I wrote about winning a World Cup with Sophie and Suzie. So, to be here now, having done that, I think that’s probably why I was so emotional out on the field in that moment. It’s something that’s so special when I think back to my younger self and to be here now and to do it with two of New Zealand’s best ever,” said Kerr, jointly at the podium with one of them and the glittering trophy they just earned in Dubai.
Earned, not won. Because, like Kerr said, sport doesn’t owe you. So, when Kerr found herself so close to realising a dream she’s held on to as a young girl, she put her body on the line for it.
New Zealand had lost just one wicket in the PowerPlays prior in this tournament leading up to the final – against Australia – which now happens to be their only defeat in the World Cup. And to keep it that way took a herculean task from Kerr. She arrived at the crease on the last ball of the second over, at Georgia Plimmer’s dismissal, and showed the intent to carry forward the message to the openers to brave it up in the first-six. Putting her feet to good use, against Ayabonga Khaka, Kerr pulled a short ball first up to the deep square leg fence for four.
In the sapping Dubai humidity, levels touching 71 even after sunset, those feet would cramp up twice in her 17-over stay but Kerr carried on even if not as fluently as that start. She had Bates taking the pressure off her early on and Brooke Halliday doing more of the same in her 28-ball stay for 38. Even at run-a-ball, and having ‘gone through 10 pairs of gloves’ while at it, Kerr kept the fight on to see New Zealand to 158/5 – a score both teams knew was above par.
When the two leading run-scorers of this World Cup and giant-killer Anneke Bosch at no. 3 were trying to together test the tenacity of that total, Kerr – fresh from a quick shower – was soon pressed into action only to feel “my calf almost go and cramp up” one ball in. But six balls later, she lent South African hopes the hardest blow by taking out their skipper Laura Wolvaardt on a limping leg.
Kerr fed the pressure created by five dots from a Lea Tahuhu over just prior with an invitingly tossed-up legbreak in the channel, and Wolvaardt couldn’t resist the bait. As Kerr wobbled halfway through her follow-up and then to the celebratory huddle around Bates at extra cover, she would have known this was the beginning of the end. If not, then four balls later as Bosch feathered one to the ‘keeper, South African fight was disintegrating faster than imagined and the centre of it all was the competition’s leading wicket-taker.