Sophie Devine Announced Her Retirement from ODI Cricket: The New Zealand team's performance in the ICC Women's ODI World Cup 2025 did not meet expectations at all, managing to win only 1 out of 7 matches played in the league stage, due to which they finished sixth in the points table. New Zealand Women's team played their last match in the league stage on 26 October against England Women's team in which they lost by 8 wickets. This was also the last match of Kiwi team captain and veteran player Sophie Devine in ODI, in which she had to leave with defeat. Sophie also became quite emotional as she returned from the field after her retirement match.
Sophie Devine admitted in her statement after the match that she had tried to go away with a win, but it was not to be. At the same time, about being emotional, Sophie said that I did not cry as much as I thought. The best part of announcing first was that I realized my feelings. It was a chance to enjoy today and remember the beginning 19 years ago. Sophie is the second longest-serving female player in ODIs for New Zealand, behind only Suzy Bates.
"Yeah, I'm probably pleasantly okay at the moment. I certainly know the emotions will come out later. But I think the thing that I'm really proud of is having made this decision, which was really tough to step away from the game that I love and this format that I love so much to be able to finish, results wise, not the way that we wanted to finish today. Like absolutely everyone wishes that they could finish on a high but it doesn't happen very often at all. But the fact that I am still so proud and so, yeah, grateful of everything that this group has given me and , I guess my whole career, one day, one game doesn't define that. So, yeah, I, yeah, I've just got so much love, I guess that yeah, I'll be really keen just to sit with my teammates, support staff and just, yeah, reflect on what's been a pretty cool ride," said Devine.
Batting first, New Zealand women's team were bowled out for just 168 runs in their last league match of the ODI World Cup 2025, after which England achieved the target in 29.2 overs. After the end of the match, the England players congratulated Sophie Devine for her brilliant ODI career and also gave a guard of honour.
New Zealand were already out of the semi-final race, but were expected to perform well in this match and bid a farewell to their captain Devine, who had already announced that this would be his last ODI. New Zealand finished their campaign in sixth place with four points.
Talking about Sophie's ODI career, she played a total of 159 matches in which she managed to score 4279 runs at an average of 32.66 with 18 fifties and 9 centuries. At the same time, Sophie's bowling was also spectacular, with a total of 111 wickets in ODIs at an average of 36.28.
Talking about T20I cricket plan “Well, I’m not retiring from T20 cricket just yet. I thought it was a bit weird if they gave me a guard of honour and then I walk out next game. Maybe I should just keep doing it,” Devine said with a cheeky smile during the post-match press conference.
