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Solid bowling performances were key for the victorious teams throughout round seven action of the HBJ Shield.
Wellington Blaze vs Canterbury Magicians
A solid start with the bat by the Blaze was undone by a second List A five wicket bag from Kate Ebrahim at the Cello Basin Reserve.
Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Jess McFadyen and Hannah Francis built a solid platform at the top of the order for the hosts as they put on a 51-run stand for the first wicket.
McFadyen tried to get back for a second run but was found short of her ground with Nat Cox’s throw, allowing Sarah Asmussen to whip the bails off and have her on her way for 18.
Francis and Caitlin King kept the momentum going for the Blaze, with Francis going on to make her second List A half-century but fell to Kate Ebrahim for 53 in the 23rd over. This is where disaster struck for the Blaze.
Sitting at 98/1 at the midway point of the innings, they would have been looking to go and make a score well over 200, but Ebrahim had other plans.
She ripped through the middle order with Rebecca Burns (0), Jess Kerr (4), Sam Mackinder (3), and Gemma Sims (1) all falling to Ebrahim.
In the middle of the drama, King found herself being run out for 27.
The Blaze had slipped to 120 for the loss of seven when Sims fell, and despite some solid defending by Isla McKenzie, who was on debut for the Blaze (6* from 36) and Rachel Bryant (2 from 24), they could only get through to 141.
Canterbury went about their chase in good fashion with all four players who batted, scoring over 20 runs each.
Kate Anderson and Ebrahim set the tone at the top, going out to a 64-run stand before Francis removed Anderson for 33.
Ebrahim could only last a further eight runs before being bowled by Kerr for 27.
A 70-run stand for the third wicket between youngsters Abigale Gerken (35*) and Izzy Sharp (31*) ensured that the visitors could take a comfortable eight-wicket win with over 13 overs to spare.
Auckland Hearts vs Otago Sparks
Forties in the top order by Saachi Shahri (44) and Maddy Green (43) laid the foundations for Auckland’s innings after they elected to bat against Otago.
The Sparks did get an early wicket with Prue Catton finding herself bowled for one by Hayley Jensen, but they would find themselves with no more wickets just under a further 20 overs.
Pressure was able to be applied by the Otago bowlers throughout Shahri and Green’s stand, with the run rate kept at around three per over.
As soon as Anna Browning struck with the wicket of Shahri, it brought about two more in quick succession with Green falling to Jensen and Eden Carson grabbing Lauren Down (9).
Apart from Izzy Gaze’s 14 and Bella Armstrong’s 18 and some late scores of 11 by Amie Hucker and Rishika Jaswal, the Hearts only managed 186 from their 50 overs.
Jensen finished with four wickets, and Browning grabbed three.
Otago got off to a relatively quick start with the chase, sitting at around five runs per over before Amie Hucker grabbed Bella James, caught and bowled for 13.
Caitlin Blakely got herself off to a start with the bat, which included a couple of fours against spinner Rishika Jaswal before Fran Jonas had her bowled for 17 in the 13th over.
Suzie Bates just allowed the game to tick along, and alongside the experienced Felicity Robertson, the pair started to get Otago into a position to push on and ensure that they could chalk up the full five points.
Auckland did manage to pick Robertson up with Jonas bowling her for 23, and the Sparks still needing 65 runs for the win.
Polly Inglis (24) and Bates saw Otago nearly through to the win, but Hucker managed to strike with ten runs still required for the win.
There weren’t any more issues for the Sparks batters with Olivia Gain (6*) and Bates’ contribution of 87* seeing them home with just under 17 overs to spare and a finals spot locked in with three games still to play.
Central Hinds vs Northern Districts
A feisty battle between the Central and Northern sides had plenty of exciting moments and even included a hat-trick to Northern’s Jesse Prasad!
Central found themselves in the driver's seat early on, with Georgia Atkinson (36) and Emma McLeod (30) putting on a 70-run stand for the opening wicket.
However, they would lose three wickets for five runs as Nensi Patel grabbed Atkinson and Thamsyn Newton (0) in quick succession whilst McLeod fell to Prasad.
Captain Mikaela Greig went about the rebuilding effort alongside Hannah Rowe (19) and Flora Devonshire (35).
Just as Greig and Rowe had started to build some resistance to the Northern attack, Jess Watkin struck for her side, with Rowe falling to her.
Greig went on to her 5th List A half-century for the Hinds and would go on to make 77 before Tash Wakelin picked both Greig and Devonshire up.
Some late hitting by Kerry Tomlinson (39) and Kate Gaging (15*) got the Hinds through to 272.
Prasad, however, did whip through the rest of the tail for Northern, with Tomlinson, Ocean Bartlett (0), and Jess Ogden (6) falling to her. Ogden’s wicket became a hat-trick for Prasad and meant she finished with 5/40 from 7.1 overs.
Northern struggled to get going in their innings, with the top six contributing 53 runs between them.
Rowe was the main destructor of the top order, with Watkin (5), Tash Wakelin (2), Yaz Kareem (14), and Marina Lamplough (11) all falling to her.
Caitlin Gurrey (10) and Nensi Patel (11) were both dismissed by Devonshire to leave the visitors at 63/6 in the 15th over.
There was going to be a rescue effort for Northern, and this came through Eve Wolland (76) and Prasad (42) as they put on an 107-run stand to get their side back into the game and give them a shot at winning.
Wolland brought up her maiden List A half-century from 70 balls. The stand, however, was broken by Green, who bowled Prasad in the 35th over.
Annie Ewart could only add two runs to the score before being out leg before to Bartlett.
Wolland and Downes did get their side past the 200 run mark, but Wolland was dismissed by McLeod, and Naidu found herself run out for one.
Downes finished on 12* as the Hinds took a 65-run victory to be in second place on the table, and seven points clear of the Wellington Blaze in third.
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