As Central Districts Hinds batsman Aroha Northover
tickled a ball off Auckland Hearts bowler Natalee
Scripps past gully, her jubilant teammates hugged
and celebrated.
Metres
away, the body language of the dejected Auckland Hearts
players at Nelson Park, Napier, needed no interpretation
on Saturday.
While
champagne flowed and cameras flashed after New Zealand
Cricket general manager Geoff Allott handed out the
trophy and medals, the eight-wicket victory did not
reflect how easily the game could have gone either
way.
Spectators
were on tenterhooks as CD made hard work of what seemingly
looked like a stroll-in-the-park target of 88 before
eclipsing the total by a run with two balls to spare.
Hinds
coach Doug Bracewell said it was great to see his
women smiling despite a nail-biting finish.
"The
Hearts were a good fielding side and bowled really
good lines at the end," said Bracewell after
Northover [10 not out] and opener Rachel Priest [45
not out] saw CD through for their first Twenty20 title.
After
a short downpour, the wet outfield following the Under-19
World Cup plate play-off matches made it difficult
for batsmen to find the boundary.
Priest hit two and fellow White Fern No 3 Sara McGlashan
one after the pair posted a 61-run partnership with
the latter departing for 29 when she didn't get hold
of a ball from off spinner Paula Gruber to hole out
at drive.
The visitors had no boundaries in their 88 runs from
20 overs. While No 3 Megan Tremaine top scored with
27 runs she was guilty of not upping the tempo and
also making indecisive calls.
Auckland
coach Maia Lewis said: "We put ourselves in a
spot where we could have potentially won so probably
in the end we didn't quite have enough runs.
"It's
hard when you're losing wickets. The key is to have
a partnership going but also have a bit of courage
to keep playing shots even if wickets are falling,"
said the former international who was proud her side
showed some ticker in their innings to keep CD on
their toes.
She
singled out ex-All White Scripps as her top bowler
after the veteran tightened the screws on Priest and
Northover, who Gruber dropped at gulley off a Scripps
delivery at 17.2 overs.
Bracewell
said: "The key to the game was chasing because
we didn't know what the weather was going to do."
He
scurried off to do his Duckworth-Lewis method calculations
when it started drizzling again around the 15th over
when McGlashan departed.
Priest
and Northover were mentally wound up to go after the
bowlers as Hearts skipper Vicki Lind intelligently
employed spinners to make the batsmen work for their
runs.
"All
we said was if we can get the bat on the ball then
we're running because we had wickets in hand,"
Priest said.
"Inside
I was panicking a little but you've just got to try
to get the runs and not worry too much about it,"
she said, agreeing a conservative innings and conceding
maidens didn't help.
"As
it went on and on I thought, 'we've left it a little
too late here and a little too late there', but we
managed to come through in the end," said the
New Zealand wicketkeeper who will undergo a fitness
test on February 12 for an iffy knee that has limited
her selection to Twenty20 international duties.
"We
were unbeaten this season so there was a bit of pressure
on us today. It would have been pretty disappointing
to come this far and lose but it showed how dominant
we are on the field," said the former Napier
Old Boys' Marist player.
While
Watkins took three wickets to clean out the middle
order, fast bowler Rachel Candy was the most economical
with two wickets off four overs for 10 runs.
Left-arm
medium pacer Maneka Singh claimed the prize wicket
of opener Lind for 13, caught by Candy at deep square
leg. The 13-year-old made amends for earlier dropping
Lind off opener Abby Burrows at drive for nine runs. |
