• OTAGO SPARKS MAINTAIN PERFECT RECORD
• QUALIFY FOR ANOTHER FINAL WITH 3 ROUNDS TO SPARE
The Otago Sparks have become the first team to qualify for the 2024/25 Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day final, after their seventh straight bonus-point win from seven rounds so far this season.
Their outrageous winning streak continued at the Auckland Hearts’ expense today with a six-wicket win that saw WHITE FERN Hayley Jensen snaffle 4/22 and star Suzie Bates carry her bat for an unbeaten 87* off 94 balls in the clinical chase.
The Sparks chased down their target of 187 in just 33.1 overs at a sweltering Kennards Hire Community Oval; meanwhile in New Plymouth the Central Hinds rebounded in style from a flat Dream11 Super Smash summer with a bonus-point one-day win of their own, banking a 65-run victory against Northern Districts that kept them positioned in the top two, and stretching their lead over the chasing pack.
Captain Mikaela Greig had plenty of support from her line-up as she top-scored with a run-a-ball 77 in Central’s 272, then Hannah Rowe led the way with the ball by returning a tidy 4/42 as the hosts bowled out Northern for 207.
The result took the gloss off ex-Auckland Northerner Jesse Prasad’s maiden five-wicket bag (5/40 off 7.1 overs) and Eve Wolland’s first List A half century, while at the Cello Basin Reserve veteran all-rounder Kate Ebrahim helped the Canterbury Magicians dominate a shell-shocked Wellington Blaze with an eight-wicket win.
Ebrahim’s 5/27 off 10 overs was her second List A bag, and helped bundle out Dream11 Super Smash champion the Blaze for just 141, the Magicians chasing down the target in just 36.5 overs for the bonus point to boot.
It was just the Magicians’ second win of the one-day season, and saw them clamber off the bottom rung of the ladder – leapfrogging Northern Districts, with the bottom teams now in a must-win situation.
The same teams play each other at the same venues tomorrow (Sunday) in the eighth of the 10 regular season rounds before the 1 March Final in Dunedin, where the Sparks lifted this title last season.
