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Both Canterbury teams took victory in Alexandra with the Magicians getting a massive win and the Kings winning with seven balls left.
Otago Sparks vs Canterbury Magicians
Kate Anderson and Frankie Mackay got the visitors off to a blazing start with the bat with Emma Black taking some tap early on. She went for 20 runs off her first two overs.
Otago was able to keep the majority of the overs at around 6-7 runs per over before Anderson and Mackay attacked the leg-break bowling of Sophie Oldershaw, taking her for 15 runs.
Suzie Bates, the Otago captain brought herself onto bowl and produced the massive breakthrough as she bowled Anderson for 43 from 32.
Australian international, Sophie Molineux came to the crease at number three and along with Mackay, they kept the pressure on the Otago bowling attack with Carson having an over sent for 10 runs and Bates having one sent for 12.
Linsey Smith was brought back into the bowling attack and struck with the wicket of Molineux for 19. Emma Black then had the massive scalp of Mackay for 51, her 16th T20 50.
Eden Carson bowled a solid eighteenth over with it only going for three runs as Pakistan international, Fatima Sana and Nat Cox couldn’t find the boundaries.
Sana was dismissed in the next over for three leaving Canterbury at 130/4 with nine balls left in the innings.
Linsey Smith was given the ball for the last over and whilst she didn’t take a wicket, Otago got three runouts with Lea Tahuhu (4), Izzy Sharp (1), and Cox (15) all run out in the last over.
They took ten runs from it and got to a solid total of 145/7.
Otago got off to a terrible start with the bat as they lost Bella James (0) and Olivia Gain (8) inside the first two overs. Tahuhu and Sana picked up the wickets respectively.
Felicity Robertson and Bates led a spirited rebuild with the bat and one of them would need to stay in for the majority of the innings if Otago would be in with a chance of victory.
When Molineux picked up her maiden Super Smash wicket of Robertson, this led to the downfall of Otago's batting innings. Robertson was bowled for 11.
Polly Inglis only added two runs to the total before she was out to Sarah Asmussen with the score reading 44/4. Caitlin Blakely went for two as well and the Sparks were six wickets down with only 50 runs on the board.
White Ferns internationals Bates and Hayley Jensen were starting to get Otago back out of the trouble they were in with a 14-run stand.
However, when Izzy Sharp completed the run out of Jensen for 7, Otago went from 64/5 to 64/9.
Bates fell victim to Tahuhu whilst Eden Carson and Linsey Smith were both out without scoring.
Oldershaw and Black added five runs for the last wicket, to get the Sparks over their lowest Super Smash total but when Black was run out for three the innings was over.
Otago were all out for 69 in 14.4 overs and this gave Canterbury a 76-run win.
Otago Volts vs Canterbury Kings
Hamish Rutherford got the Volts off to a good start in the first over with 12 runs coming off Will O’Rourke’s opening over.
The Volts lost a wicket in the second over with opener Jake Gibson falling to Zak Foulkes for a two-ball duck. They then were in more trouble when Foulkes had Otago captain Dean Foxcroft for a run-a-ball seven to leave the Volts at 33/2 after four overs.
Rutherford and New Zealand international Glenn Phillips had a solid 55-run stand for the third wicket with Phillips showing a tad more aggression during the pair's time in the middle. The 50-run stand between them was made in 44 balls with Phillips making 32 and Rutherford 21 in the partnership.
Foulkes was reintroduced to the bowling crease and once again struck with Phillips falling for 38 runs. Rutherford then was dismissed in the following over for 52, having made his 18th T20 50.
Llew Johnson could only add seven runs to the score as he was caught by a good catch between Chad Bowes and BJ Jacobs in the deep.
Max Chu and Dale Phillips then showed some explosiveness at the end of the innings with a 63-run partnership in the last 5.1 overs. This was boosted by a massive last three overs with Rippon going for 11 runs in the 18th, Foulkes going for 12 in the 19th, and then a massive 25-run final over where Chu and Phillips carted Angus McKenzie for 25 runs. This got the Volts up to a total of 171/5.
Andrew Hazeldine bowled a tight first over for the home team as he only went for two runs. Henry Nicholls then went big in the second over as he took 16 runs off Jacob Duffy.
Hazeldine struck in the third over with Chad Bowes edging off to Max Chu for 4 from 10.
Nicholls then kept building the pressure with a 15-run over off Travis Muller before he and Leo Carter took Hazeldine for 24 runs off his third over. Hazeldine did however find some luck on the second to last ball of the over with Carter being caught LBW for nine.
Two of Canterbury’s most experienced players, Nicholls and captain Cole McConchie were now at the crease and shared a partnership of 36 runs in 5.4 overs. Glenn Phillips and Gibson were bowling tight to keep the Kings at bay, but a 12-run over was conceded by the spin of Ben Lockrose.
Muller was brought back into the bowling attack and struck twice in the over with Henry Nicholls edging to Chu for 59 and Mitch Hay being bowled for a golden duck.
Michael Rippon and McConchie then had two big overs with Lockrose being sent for 15 runs and Gibson being sent for 12 runs to leave the Kings at 129/4 with 7 overs left in the chase.
Lockrose completed a run out of McConchie in the fourteenth over for 39.
BJ Jacobs and Rippon kept the run rate up with overs of eight and 15 runs, but a tight over by Gibson, which included the wicket of Jacobs for 19, left the Kings with 15 runs needed from the last three overs.
Duffy went for seven runs in the eighteenth over and Glenn Phillips was given the ball to bowl the penultimate over. He went for five runs in the first four balls before Foulkes played a massive shot onto the bank for six therefore giving the Kings a win by four wickets.
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