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The Sparks have gained a big nine-wicket win over the Brave Women whilst the Volts secured victory off a strong bowling performance.
Northern Brave Women vs Otago Sparks
Otago had a great first over with Emma Black causing some early struggles for the Northern batters with only a single coming from it.
A rain delay in the second over caused the game to be restricted to 17 overs per side. Shortly after the delay, Chamari Athapaththu fell for one from nine.
Jess Watkin and Caitlin Gurrey saw the side through to the next delay and this once again caused a reduction in overs.
With only a five-over powerplay, Watkin and Gurrey went about their usual ball-striking business and finished up on 34/1 at the end of the first five overs after the early struggles.
Watkin carried on this momentum, however, it started to flip in the Sparks direction when Eden Carson had Gurrey for 30 caught off an excellent catch by Felicity Robertson.
Seamer Molly Loe picked up her fifth wicket of the tournament when she had the threatening Watkin out for 25.
Linsey Smith got Sam Barriball out for four in the next over and the Brave were sitting at 69/4 after 11 overs.
Brave captain Eimear Richardson and Marina Lamplough tried to up the ante a tad but Richardson was runout for five with just over an overleft.
Lamplough was run out on the last ball of the innings by PJ Watkins with the Brave finishing on 93/6.
The DLS target was revised to 95 runs from 15 overs.
Otago had a very solid opening stand of 80 runs with none of the Northern Brave bowlers able to capitalise early on.
Nensi Patel and Marama Downes had got Northern off to a good start with the ball as the pair restricted Otago to seven runs from the first over.
A couple of over at the back end of the powerplay went for nine (off Athapaththu) and 10 (off Watkin) which allowed Bella James and Suzie Bates to build their strong stand.
With the pressure being relieved off Bates through a career-best score of 39 by James, it allowed the Sparks to get through to 80/1 when James fell in the twelfth over.
Hayley Jensen and Bates saw the Sparks to victory in the next over with a nine-wicket win.
Northern Brave Men vs Otago Volts
The Brave’s batting innings got off to a bad start with Katene Clarke falling victim to Ben Lockrose for 10 and Jeet Raval making a two-ball duck, Jacob Duffy getting the wicket.
Two of the more experienced players in Joe Carter and Tim Seifert got the Northern out of trouble, with Tim Seifert being the more aggressive player as he hit two sixes off Lockrose and two off Duffy in the space of two overs.
The ever-reliable Jake Gibson stepped up to the bowling crease and stuck with the wicket of Carter for five and then Travis Muller had the huge wicket of Seifert for 37 from 24, one over later.
With the Brave sitting in an uncomfortable position of 68/4, halfway through the ninth over, they would need Henry Cooper and Mitchell Santner to both stand-up and show their dominance.
Cooper showed the opposite as he departed in the thirteenth over for a measly six from 13.
Glenn Phillips then had the biggest wicket of the day, Mitchell Santner caught by Llew Johnson for 49. Santner had been starting to attack more and this brought about the major downfall of the Northern Brave’s batting innings.
Duffy had both Brett Hampton (8) and Tim Southee (1) in the following over before Gibson got Kuggeleijn (1) and the Brave only having one wicket left.
Tim Pringle and Neil Wagner tried their best to keep the total going up but Duffy struck in the penultimate over as he bowled Pringle for one. The Brave finished their innings on 128/10.
The Volts had an early wobble in their innings with Hamish Rutherford getting an early chance when Pringle nearly took a catch. He however wouldn’t last much longer with Wagner getting Rutherford to edge off to the Seifert for three.
Dean Foxcroft and Gibson steered the Volts innings with a partnership that saw the Otago team to the near end of the eighth over with Pringle getting Gibson for 21 and the game sitting at an interesting place.
Phillips and Foxcroft however provided the partnership that was needed as they saw Otago right through to the end of the game.
As the knock between them continued to build, so did Phillips’ attacking nature as he raced to 50 from just 27 balls with five sixes in the knock including three in a row off Pringle, an over that massively spun the game.
Foxcroft made his 50 on the second to last ball of the innings with a four off Wagner. He then finished the game in the next ball when he sent Wagner for four more runs down the ground.
Phillips finished not out 53* and Foxcroft on 55*.
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