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The Otago Sparks have won a thrilling HBJ Shield at home over the Wellington Blaze.
The Blaze openers struggled to get going early with some tight bowling by the Sparks bowlers early on.
Rebecca Burns was the wicket to fall in the powerplay with Hayley Jensen bowling her for ten.
Caitlin King and Jess McFadyen then went about working on laying a platform for the Blaze with a 51-run stand for the second wicket, however, when Molly Loe got King for 19 it started to flip the game in the way of the Sparks.
Georgia Plimmer could only add 16 and Leigh Kasperek went first ball as Emma Black had both the wickets. On the fifth ball of the same over, Kate Chandler was run out for one with the Blaze slipping from 95/2 to 96/5.
McFadyen and Jess Kerr then put on 62 runs for the sixth wicket. Kerr, showed her momentum with the bat as she hit 56 from just 65 balls whilst McFadyen finished on 64.
Loe had McFadyen with nine overs to go in the innings and Kerr fell to Felicity Robertson just as the Blaze were nearing the 200-run mark.
Hannah Francis (13*), Nicole Baird (6), and Natasha Codyre (5*) were able to get the Blaze to 211/8 from their 50 overs.
Black took 3/31 from 10 overs whilst Loe grabbed 2/42 from eight overs.
The opening batters for the Sparks crumbled early with Saffron Wilson the first to go to Codyre for one. Xara Jetly then struck twice in quick succession with Suzie Bates going for 16 and Bella James for 13.
Caitlin Blakely and Robertson had to stand for the home side and they did just that. The middle order of the Sparks showed great maturity and it was led by Blakely’s 50 and Robertson's 38. Kasperek had the wicket of Blakely in the 32nd over while Jetly got Robertson in the 35th.
Polly Inglis and Olivia Gain nearly got their side home to victory, but Gain fell to Codyre for 42 from 38 with 21 runs to win from 5.1 overs.
Inglis finished on 35* and Hayley Jensen on 9* as the Sparks grabbed a four-wicket win to take the 2023/24 HBJ Shield.
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