Sophie Devine has described New Zealand's victory in the final match of England's tour as validation for the work her team has done behind the scenes to improve their position in world cricket.
Devine led New Zealand to a seven-wicket win in the third and final ODI in Hamilton on Sunday after missing the fifth T20I and first two ODIs with a quad strain. Her unbeaten century, sealed with two sixes off what turned out to be the last three balls of the match, took the hosts to their 195 target for the loss of just three wickets with 11 overs to spare.
It was a consolation given that England had won the T20 leg 4-1 and already assumed an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ODIs, but to Devine it represented more. It showed that New Zealand's efforts to build depth within their existing squad were working after her pre-series lament over a lack of fresh names pressing for selection in a relatively tiny talent pool.
"The great thing was everyone chipped in," Devine said. "I thought Hannah Rowe was excellent up top, obviously Jess Kerr coming back in through the middle, the spinners did a great job as well.
"I'm a bit wary though of Suzie Bates thinking that she's going to be golden arm now, so we'll have to keep her in check," she added with a faint, wry smile. "But just a fantastic all-around team performance, and I guess it probably validates the work that we're doing behind the scenes and knowing that when we get things right, we're going to be a hard team to beat."
Veteran opener and part-time bowler Bates showed a knack for prising out key wickets in sparing spells during both series, but it was the performance of the whole bowling unit that most pleased Devine. She deployed six in this match while missing injured seamer Rosemary Mair since the T20Is finished. Seamers Rowe and Jess Kerr set up the win with three wickets apiece while Amelia Kerr chimed in with 2 for 46 to bowl England out for 194 with 3.3 overs remaining.
"The way she soaked up pressure at the start of her innings, tactically targeted a bowler that was a good matchup for her and was able to soak up that pressure and then put it back on us, I think is a really good lesson for our middle order and our batting group" Heather Knight on Sophie Devine
"That's what's been happening probably the last 18, 24 months as we've been trying to build that bowling depth, [we have] so many options now and we bought Eden Carson in for another spin bowling option there today," Devine said. "I thought Rosemary Mair has probably been our bowler of the series, unfortunate to lose her to injury, but the fact now that we've got players that can come in and perform, it puts us in a really good position in terms of putting pressure on each player, but also knowing that once you're there that you can really do a job, especially being able to perform the way we have against a really strong England team.
"Sometimes we've got to have a bit of perspective that what we are asking them [young players] to do is bloody tough and they're not going to succeed every single time. That's where the confidence and belief comes as we're sticking with them and knowing that they've got the skills. We see how hard they work behind the scenes day in, day out, and hopefully they can get belief from that."
It was Devine's powerful 93-ball century that sealed the win after New Zealand had stumbled to 14 for 2, losing openers Bates and Georgia Plimmer - promoted for an injured Bernadine Bezuidenhout - cheaply. She shared an unbroken century stand with Maddy Green after putting on 76 with Amelia Kerr. With 12 runs needed to win and reach her hundred, Devine struck Charlie Dean over the deep midwicket fence twice in three balls to secure both.
"I'd been chomping at the bit to get out there and just help the team I guess and wanting to lead from the front, so when I got the opportunity today, I wanted to really knuckle down," Devine said. "I've seen how hard these girls have worked the past couple of weeks on this series, and although results haven't gone our way, the work that's been going on behind the scenes I think is starting to show that we're trending in the right direction.
"Obviously we've still got a lot of work to do to stay in touch with the Australias [and] the Indias, but winning games of cricket like that I think shows that that was, I'd say, a comprehensive win for us against a top quality side."
And while her plan wasn't to finish the match with two maximums, Devine particularly enjoyed looking Nat Sciver-Brunt in the eye afterwards. "I just wanted to get the job done and be really ruthless with that, and then Nat Sciver-Brunt started to chirp me and said, 'you've got two shots, two balls, have a crack,' sort of thing. If someone eggs me on, yeah, I've got a bit of a rubber arm. So yeah, look, the way it went, I'm just happy to finish the game with some overs to spare."
Heather Knight, the England captain, described the result as "frustrating" and was full of praise for Devine's innings: "The pitch wasn't quite straightforward, it was a bit of a tricky one, but I thought Sophie showed us exactly how to bat. The way she soaked up pressure at the start of her innings, tactically targeted a bowler that was a good matchup for her and was able to soak up that pressure and then put it back on us, I think is a really good lesson for our middle order and our batting group."
Both sides will meet again in England for three ODIs and five T20Is in June and July as they ramp up preparations for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year.
Before travelling to England, Devine said her side were apprehensively looking forward to putting in more hard work to ensure gains made at home weren't lost.
"We're going to be absolutely flogged if I'm being honest, and that's what it takes," Devine said. "We've identified a number of areas both with bat and ball and in the field that we're going to have to improve a fair amount to keep up with these top sides and to play the style that we want to. There's going to be a lot of balls being hit, a lot of balls being bowled and just doing that dirty, hard work in the pits of Lincoln and Mount Maunganui, so really looking forward to getting stuck in and working hard with this group."