Devine: Will wear the underdog badge with pride

On the sidelines of their first nets in Navi Mumbai, New Zealand squad also took out some time shooting a special piece of content with Ian Bishop. It was the first anniversary of White Ferns' maiden T20 World Cup win. The foundation of that underdogs story was set in their group-stage victory against India - a game they had circled on the calendar and strategised for relentlessly a full year in advance. A year on, in a different format, with a very different tournament structure, their game against India at the 2025 World Cup has again shaped up to be a make-or-break for their semis push.

Skipper Sophie Devine acknowledged the game carries all the intensity of a virtual quarterfinal for them, and offered plenty of empathy for the immense pressure India faces as hosts - an emotional weight she knows all too well having led New Zealand in the 2022 edition at home. While she recognised the home side as clear favourites, Devine also said New Zealand are ready for the challenge of playing amidst a crowd that's "99.9% supporting India" and proud to embrace their underdogs tag.

"This is pretty much a quarterfinal and we're really stepping towards that pressure," Devine said on Wednesday. "In all honesty, I can't begin to imagine the type of pressure that the Indian team is under. I know when we played at a home World Cup, the pressure that we felt to perform in front of our home crowd, in front of our own country was at times overwhelming. I can't imagine what that's like with a billion people tuned into the TV screens and the expectation and the weight that's on their shoulders. I've got real empathy for them having to try and deal with that while also going out and to perform.

"So, for us, it's a really exciting challenge. We actually just spoke in a team meeting that these are the moments. You want to be playing cricket in a pretty much knockout game, against India, in India, at a World Cup. So, we're incredibly excited. We're obviously under no illusions that India are still the favourites, without a doubt. And we will wear the underdog badge with pride, as Kiwis often do. Yeah, but for us it is. We know the pressure that India are under at home, but we're just going to go out there and again control what we can control and make sure we stick to what we do well as a Kiwi side."

New Zealand have arguably suffered the most from the scheduling in Colombo, where afternoon starts are prone to monsoon rain interruptions this time of the year. What's worse is that an unseasonal rain has snuck into Navi Mumbai's forecast for the rest of the week, potentially threatening another washout on Thursday that could cull their semis bid. Devine, with her trademark wry humour, remarked that the team has moved on from the events in Sri Lanka and is now focused on the controllables, choosing not to be distracted by forecasts, records, or the prospect of playing in front of a fiercely partisan home crowd.

"I'm not surprised, to be honest. I expect there to be rain everywhere we go at the moment, Devine said. "Again, I'm sort of on repeat here, but you can't control the weather. We'll deal with it if it comes. There's no point worrying about it. I mean, yeah, I'm sure most teams have got about seven different weather apps and the rain radar. And you're trying to talk to the ground staff and try and get as much insight as you can, but until it actually falls down and the umpires call you off, we're just focused on what we want to do and hopefully getting a full hundred overs of cricket in would be really nice."

The DY Patil stadium has only ever hosted T20 cricket and a one-off women's Test match before the World Cup fixture between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the start of this week. However, as one of the co-hosting venues of the inaugural Women's Premier League, it's a ground many of the Indian players - and three from New Zealand - are already familiar with. Even so, Devine felt, such familiarity only goes so far.

"Thank goodness for the internet and the ability to be able to scout different games," Devine said in jest. "Obviously we played WPL here a couple of years ago now and there's been different competitions and different games have been played here. Again, you've sort of got to take that with a pinch of salt because [between] men's cricket, women's cricket, T20s, ODIs - it can produce different [results].

"I've said all along about this competition in particular, it's about who can adapt to those conditions best and be able to understand what's going to be required out there. Whether it's 240 or whether it's 340, I don't know. But the team that can adjust and can adapt to those conditions and execute their plans is going to come out on top. But, I'm really excited. It's a great stadium. I've just heard that it's maybe sold out, hopefully. It's going to be a really good atmosphere here tomorrow."

Behind all her humour, Devine knows well it's only wishful thinking to count on Mumbai Indians' Amelia Kerr's popularity to win them a pocket of support in the packed crowd. But she's more than happy to let the partisan audience, a billion-strong nation, and the media pile the pressure on India - after all, there's some silver lining to flying the underdog flag.

"You say Melie knows some of those Indian players really well; they also know Melie well. And I think that's the great thing about franchise cricket [that] it's not all one way, it's certainly both ways. But again, I go back to - the Indians probably have enough pressure on them coming from the rest of your country to try and perform and get through to a semi-final, which I know is the expectation for them. We'll let the Indian public and the media and all that give the Indian team enough pressure and we'll just keep going about our thing."

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