CHENNAI: "Where else would you rather be?"
That's what Frances Mackay asked her New Zealand teammates during the second drinks break of their World Cup match against South Africa on Thursday.
New Zealand was almost down and out. South Africa needed just 73 runs from 16 overs, with eight wickets in hand. A loss would leave the hosts needing to win their remaining three matches to comfortably secure their spot in the top four. They were under tremendous pressure.
Mackay — who had featured in three global tournaments early in her career before being dropped, had worked her way back into the side following a seven-year hiatus. Now, she was at the centre of it all, giving her teammates some much-needed perspective.
And, it worked. New Zealand tightened the screws from both ends; wickets started falling one after the other. Mackay herself picked up a couple, forcing the game into the last over. She had six runs to defend against Marizanne Kapp, arguably the best all-rounder in the world at the moment.
Although the contest lasted just three deliveries, with Kapp getting the better of Mackay, her words had struck a chord with the team, especially their captain Sophie Devine. Despite the loss and their desperate position in the tournament, Devine was upbeat and confident through the post-match interactions.
Their next challenge came on Sunday against defending champions England. The old story continued as the batting crumbled for 203, and England were cruising towards the target at 98 for two in 22 overs with two of their best batters, Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver, building a partnership.
Once again, Mackay found herself in the middle of it all. With the ball in hand, she had to try and create some magic. Only this time, the stakes were higher. Devine and pacer Lea Tahuhu, two of the team’s premier bowlers, were off the field with injuries. And a defeat would all but end their campaign.
Mackay, who has been the best off-spinner in this World Cup, had to step up in their absence — who were not just two of the seniormost players, but their key wicket-taking bowlers. With memories of previous WC heartbreaks swirling around in the back of her mind, Mackay now had to take up the responsibility for New Zealand.
And at that moment, the team, and the country, could not have chosen a better person.
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2009 & 2010 will likely go down as the most heartbreaking couple of years in the White Ferns' history. They had lost two T20 and one ODI World Cup finals in a span of 14 months despite having one of the strongest squads going around at the time with a perfect blend of youth and experience.
A little over a year after the T20 WC final, a 21-year-old Mackay earned her maiden international cap. In her four-year domestic career, she had seen nothing but success, having been part of four title-winning efforts with the Canterbury Magicians. She was high on confidence, but was she ready to replicate those performances at the highest level?
While she might have been ready physically, Mackay was unable to handle the pressure of keeping her place in a star-studded line-up and struggled on long tours away from home. Shuffled up and down the order between 2011 and 2014, she averaged only 17 in 46 internationals. She had shown promise with the ball, but it was not enough to keep her place in the side.
Mackay returned to Canterbury, worked hard on her fitness, and being a cricket nerd herself, was asked to take up a job away from the sport. She became a librarian, focused on her mental health, and slowly but steadily, the runs and wickets started to come. But not the callback.
In between, her love for commentary took over, and her keen interest to follow almost every cricket match around the globe came in handy. She made a name for herself as one of the best analysts going around, earning appreciation from the likes of Stephen Fleming, Ian Bishop, Brendon McCullum, and Jimmy Neesham.
During her time away from the top, Mackay had learnt to surround herself with people who fueled her fire. Her outlook towards the game had changed, and it only enhanced her performances for Canterbury, leading them to the T20 and one-day titles in 2020-21.
Mackay’s changed perspective had a massive impact on the kind of person and cricketer she had become in the seven years since she was first dropped from the White Ferns. She was finally content with where she was in her career. At 31, she was in the form of her life and was contemplating retirement. That was when the opportunity to play for New Zealand again knocked on her doors.
As she told Women's CricZone, Mackay wasn't very sure if she really wanted to make a comeback initially, but with the home World Cup around the corner, she listened to her heart and played for New Zealand again in the 2020-21 home season. "If the 10-year-old you were standing here, and you had to tell them, ‘I have decided I don’t want to play for New Zealand,’ you know, that would be pretty disappointing," she was quoted saying to the online portal.
Picked ahead of off-spinner Leigh Kasperek for the series against India before the World Cup, Mackay put her varied skills, both technical and tactical, on display — the run out of Harmanpreet Kaur on her follow-through, underlining her game awareness. She was enjoying her second coming in international cricket, and how!
"The best feeling is to put on the black shirt at the start of the day, and to be out there with such a great bunch of people, it's really special. It's something that I really don't take for granted anymore... Any time you can contribute, any time you could be in the thick of things, that's always an awesome feeling as a player," she said after taking the team across the line with the bat alongside Lauren Down in the third ODI.
Mackay continued to make a similar kind of impact in the World Cup as well, especially in the bowling department, delivering in crunch situations — a story the scorecards won’t tell. On Sunday, against England, it was no different. It was the kind of situation she had been in several times in her career, both as skipper of Canterbury and a player for New Zealand.
This time, the onus was largely on her to keep the team's dream alive.
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Mackay was bowling to Heather Knight, who was well into her 40s. England was cruising, needing just 108 runs from 168 balls. At Eden Park, with short straight boundaries, she was bowling stump-to-stump, trying not to give any length for Knight to go downtown.
She forced Knight onto the back foot with a slightly short of a length delivery before pitching one further up. Looking for the reverse sweep, the England skipper was struck on the pads. The finger went up in no time, and Mackay let out a roar of emotion — a rare on-field occurrence. That’s how much it meant to her.
She bowled one moreover, her fourth, before being replaced by Brooke Halliday, who made an impact immediately, getting rid of the new batter in Amy Jones. She watched on as Halliday and the Kerr sisters tried to break the partnership between Sciver and Sophia Dunkley for the next 13 overs. England continued to chip away at the target, one boundary at a time.
When Amy Satterthwaite brought Mackay back into the attack, the partnership was growing. New Zealand had 41 runs and 12 overs to play with. By that time, the drizzle had already started. England was well ahead in the DLS par score. The only way for New Zealand to come back into the game was by taking wickets.
Her first delivery turned and bounced, taking Sciver by surprise. Mackay was using the crease to create different angles, trying to outsmart the batters. She conceded just three runs in that over and three off the first three deliveries in her next. Just before the fourth, mid-on was brought in. Mackay went wide of the crease and tossed one up outside off-stump. Dunkley’s foot was nowhere near the pitch of the ball as it held its line and went straight past her outside edge to hit the top of the off-stump.
She had done it again; a jubilant Mackay punched the air in delight. The high-fives followed with a sigh of relief. It was a much-needed breakthrough for the White Ferns. England had lost half their side, but the dangerous Sciver was still out there at the other end.
A couple of quiet overs followed before Satterthwaite brought back Jess with 17 required from 42 deliveries. New Zealand needed wickets, and Jess delivered with the big one, cleaning up Sciver. Panic had started to kick in for England.
Now, it was over to Mackay at the other end. She had just 13 runs to defend. England had six overs to get them. After almost every delivery, she came together with Satterthwaite and Suzie Bates, planning what to do next.
White Ferns needed their best minds to pull off a heist from here. And it took just three deliveries for Mackay to get rid of Sophie Ecclestone, who chopped one onto the stumps. Seven down. With the continued drizzle, the ball was skidding through the surface.
Two balls later, she pushed a fast one through and caught Kate Cross on the back-foot for a fuller delivery, trapping her on the pads. England had lost their eighth. The roar of the Eden Park crowd had engulfed Mackay’s celebration as she brought her side back into the contest one wicket at a time.
Watching Mackay out in the middle, her 10-year-old self, who fell in love with all the pieces of the game, would have been proud. She was in the middle of the team huddle, looking around, soaking it all in. She took a couple of deep breaths, realising that it could be the last game she was playing with the special group of players in New Zealand colours, the kind of attitude she had spoken about taking in every game during the India series.
A run out in the next over would follow, with Maddy Green’s throw from deep-midwicket catching Katherine Brunt short despite her full-length dive — eerily similar to the 2019 men’s ODI World Cup final super over when Guptill's dive wasn't enough. Could this be New Zealand’s moment?
The White Ferns were on the verge of doing something remarkable at Eden Park. All they needed was one wicket, with six runs in the bag. Anya Shrubsole and Charlie Dean played out Mackay’s ninth over safely. Halliday had to be brought back as the other pacers were bowled out. The difference between agony and ecstasy was now just five runs and a wicket.
Shrubsole drove Halliday through covers for four, and silence descended over Eden Park. The scores were level. A super over was still possible, and New Zealand still clearly believed. Halliday ran in and delivered a low full-toss. Shrubsole chipped it towards midwicket, where Mackay, yes Mackay, dived across, trying to take a low catch, but the ball flew past her fingertips.
England snuck through, once again, “by the barest of margins”.
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The game is over. England are celebrating. New Zealand are in disbelief.
Mackay is still on the ground at short-midwicket, with her head buried in the grass. She looks like she doesn’t want to get up at all. Katey Martin is down on her knees, in the middle of the pitch, with her hands visibly shaking. Every New Zealand player is standing still, where they were, almost in tears.
Mackay pulls herself up, walks back for the customary fist bump with the England team, tries hard not to let the emotions take over. But the tears are visible. She had almost pulled off the impossible. New Zealand had no business coming this close to victory, but Mackay had almost single-handedly given them hope.
The emotions are still running high, with the players processing the heartbreak of a potential early exit, especially with some of them in their mid-30s, taking part in what is likely their last ODI World Cup. And they still have a match to play later this week.
Maybe not today. Or not in the next week or month. But someday, Mackay would probably sit back at her home and look at this game with pride more than anything else, knowing that she did everything she could till the last moment. For, cricket is a game where you would probably fail a lot more than actually succeed.
New Zealand may be all but out of the tournament. Frankie Mackay may or may not get to play another global event with this group of players. But it is all about what she said on Thursday during the drinks break.
Where else would she rather be than giving it all on the field for the game she loves to bits in a home World Cup?