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Auckland have taken victory in both games in Christchurch with a last-ball victory for the Hearts while the Aces dominated the Kings.
Canterbury Magicians vs Auckland Hearts
Canterbury won the toss and elected to bat. Frankie Mackay and Kate Anderson saw off the first couple of overs before Bree Illing struck with the wicket of Anderson for 10, this was Illing’s first Super Smash wicket.
Mackay and Australian international Sophie Molineux nearly saw Canterbury through the rest of the powerplay but Skye Bowden struck with the wicket of Molineux for 17 from 16. This was Molineux’s last match in the Super Smash season before she heads back to Victoria for club duties.
Fatima Sana and Mackay kept the pressure on the Hearts bowlers with Molly Penfold having a bit of tap taken to her early by Sana.
The Magicians were cruising nicely until Mackay was bowled by Bowden for 19 and then Sana fell in the following over for 33 from 27 to Illing.
Nat Cox and Izzy Sharp lead the rebuilding effort for the home team with a solid 58-run stand for the fifth wicket. The 50-run stand was made in 36 balls.
Sharp was very easily the more aggressive batter as she raced to 40 from 25.
Cox and Sharp both lost their wickets near the end of the innings as Cox was run out for 15 by Fran Jonas and Sharp out for 45 from just 28 balls to Bowden.
Laura Hughes was run out by Bowden's last ball for 1 and Lea Tahuhu finished on 3*.
Auckland's innings got off to a fast start through Izzy Gaze and Saachi Shahri and they found themselves sitting at around the required rate early on in the game.
Gaze fell halfway through the fourth over for 11 and then Shahri fell in the following over for 10.
The experienced Maddy Green was joined by Prue Catton in the middle and the two of them got the Auckland innings back on the right track.
Catton’s job was to just give the strike to Green and she did just this in her run-a-ball 15 before Sarah Asmussen struck with the wicket.
Bella Armstrong went in the next over for one as she fell to Gabby Sullivan and the Hearts were in trouble.
Green tried her best to up Auckland’s scoring rate and hit a boundary in the majority of the overs to keep the asking rate down. It was however looking like a Canterbury victory as Auckland had tried to accelerate their innings too late in the game.
Bowden fell victim to Tahuhu for nine which brought Anna Browning to the crease.
Green took 14 runs off a Sana over and then 13 from the next over bowled by Molineux to leave Auckland needing 30 runs from the last two overs.
When Canterbury struck with the major wicket of Green for 71 from 53 as she was run out by Anderson it looked very much like Canterbury taking a win.
Sana finished off her spell with a no-ball, but the free hit only cost one run.
Auckland needed 18 runs to win in the last over and Molineux was given the task of bowling it.
The first ball went for three by Anna Browning before Josie Penfold grabbed a single off the next ball (which was a no-ball).
With the free hit going for four and the following ball going for four, it meant Auckland needed 5 to win from the last three balls.
Browning ran two leg byes and a single to leave Penfold with the task of getting the final two runs.
She hit the ball down the ground and Auckland ran two to get a 4-wicket win.
Canterbury Kings vs Auckland Aces:
Canterbury got off to a fast start with the bat with 17 runs coming from the opening over by Ben Lister.
Lockie Ferguson struck in the second over however to send Tom Latham back to the pavilion for five and then Danru Ferns got Chad Bowes in the next over for seven.
Daryl Mitchell and Henry Nicholls added a small 22-run stand for the third wicket but they were going on at a slow rate. Nicholls went for 13 as he tried to break loose and go for a big shot of Louis Delport but was caught by Mark Chapman.
Cole McConchie could add very little to the total and like Nicholls fell having tried to go for a big shot off Delport. He went for 8 from 10.
With Canterbury in a bit of trouble, it would be up to two experienced domestic players Michael Rippon and Mitchell to help resurrect the innings. They decided to take things slowly as they saw off Delport (2/20 from four overs), Ferns (1/23 from four overs) and Ferguson (1/24 from four overs).
They made a 50-run stand that proved vital to Canterbury being able to put a defendable total on the board.
Just as Rippon and Mitchell were looking to get going, Lister struck with the wicket of Rippon for a run-a-ball 25.
Zak Foulkes was able to hit 13 from six right at the end and Mitchell finished on 57* from 50 balls this 19th T20 50.
Auckland opened the batting with Finn Allen and Sean Solia as Martin Guptill had picked up an injury in the field.
Solia fell early into the innings for 13 with Foulkes getting the wicket.
It was then up to Blackcaps Finn Allen (78*) and Mark Chapman (38) to take to the Canterbury bowling attack.
When Allen took Sodhi for 21 runs off the eighth over it swung the momentum in Auckland’s way as he was able to find the boundary a lot more from this point.
Whilst the start wasn’t the usual Allen that everyone knows, he showed that if he can build an innings he can get going.
Chapman and Allen made a 118-run stand for the second wicket, a record for the 2nd wicket and for all wickets in T20s between Auckland and Canterbury.
Chapman fell victim to Rippon with just two runs left for victory. Robbie O’Donnell hit the winning runs in the following over to give Auckland an eight-wicket win.
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