Brave Women, Men pick up important Super Smash victories

Both Northern sides picked up victories at Seddon Park today against the Auckland sides.

Auckland Hearts vs Northern Brave (W):

An all-around performance by Sri Lankan international Chamari Athapaththu (71) helped the Brave to their second win of the season and move up to third place in the table.

Athapaththu combined with the experienced Caitlin Gurrey (22) and Australian international Amanda-Jade Wellington (36) to push the Brave to 152.

Auckland had got off to a good start with the ball with Amie Hucker picking up the important wicket of Jess Watkin for four in the first over.

Following Gurrey’s dismissal to Prue Catton in the ninth over, the Hearts managed to strike two more times to take the Brave to 68/4.

The 75-run five-wicket stand between Athapaththu and Wellington was the backbone of Northern’s innings and provided them with some much-needed runs through the middle order.

Hucker and Halliday both picked up late wickets whilst Carol Agafili (4) was run out on the final ball.

In her 100th Super Smash match, Sam Barriball finished on 1*.

Auckland's openers Izzy Gaze (0) and Saachi Shahri (10) departed early to Marama Downes and Shriya Naidu respectively in the opening couple of overs.

If the Hearts were going to be able to chase down the total then they would need their middle order to stand up and provide the needed runs.

Maddy Green (30) and Brooke Halliday (39) got the Hearts well back into the game but they both fell in quick succession to Watkin and Nensi Patel respectively and were sitting at 84/4 in the 13th over.

Despite a 40* from Lauren Down, the Hearts couldn’t get to victory with Athapaththu taking two late wickets and Wellington one. 

Northern took a 13-run win with the target being too difficult for Auckland.

Auckland Aces vs Northern Brave (M):

Auckland’s Bevon-John Jacobs and Northern’s Katene Clarke’s dual 90s led an exciting match at Seddon Park.

The Aces found themselves in trouble early on with openers Will O’Donnell (6) and Simon Keene (12) struggling to get going early.

Some tight bowling by the Brave allowed them to attack the Aces batters and led to Cam Fletcher’s dismissal to Neil Wagner for four in the fifth over as they slipped to 30/3.

Just as Sean Solia (14) and Jacobs had started to put together a stand, it was broken by Neil Wagner with Solia departing.

In just his second match, Lachlan Stackpole built a partnership throughout the middle overs to get their side back into the game and start to put some pressure on the Brave bowlers.

Stackpole’s wicket came at an important time for the Brave with Rohit Gulati getting him to hit it straight to Robbie O’Donnell on the leg-side boundary.

From there it was all about Jacobs and Jock McKenzie (35*) who put on a 93-run sixth wicket stand to take the Aces through to 187 from their 20 overs.

The pair played stable innings up until the penultimate over when they decided to put the foot down and took Matt Fisher for 26 and then Kristian Clarke for 25.

Auckland grabbed one wicket inside the powerplay with Joe Carter getting a massive top edge off Danru Ferns for five with keeper Cam Fletcher taking a great catch running back.

Ben Pomare could only contribute 10 with Adi Ashok striking the first ball of his spell.

Katene Clarke and Robbie O’Donnell (73*) took to the Brave bowlers and didn’t let them get settled with a mammoth 138-run stand from 12 overs to get their side to 180/3 when Clarke departed to McKenzie.

McKenzie picked up two more wickets in that over with Brett Hampton departing for a golden duck and Jeet Raval for one.

However, a first ball four from Kristian Clarke and O’Donnell’s match-winning six off Keene took the Brave to a five-run win.