After the sting of losing the national Dream11 Super Smash Grand Final to Wellington Blaze by one run on the last ball of the game, the CENTRAL HINDS don’t have to wait long for a shot at revenge.

Less than a week after the T20 showcase, the teams go head-to-head in back-to-back one-dayers in Wellington this weekend as the national one-day Hallyburton Johnstone Shield reignites with two of the last four rounds of the regular season.

Unlike the Super Smash and men’s Ford Trophy that offers an Elimination Final life to the third-ranked team on the table, only the top two teams will progress to the 25 February national Final.

So the resurgent Hinds have four big games (in Wellington and New Plymouth) to get themselves back at the right end of the table — currently just four points behind Northern Districts and the Auckland Hearts who sit in joint second, with up to five points available per game for a bonus point win.

T20 champions the Blaze are also leading the HBJ, the only side to have snaffled four wins from the pre-Christmas rounds.

If the Hinds can take a win or two off their adversaries at the Basin this weekend, they stand a great chance of roaring up the table when it counts.

Saturday’s match will also see the Viv Stephens Memorial Trophy go back on the line, contested by these two teams annually in their first one-day clash each season.

The Hinds won the treasured trophy commemorating the team’s first captain last summer in Palmerston North, after a washout had meant the teams had shared the honour the previous season.

The 2022/23 team with the Viv Stephens Memorial Trophy

With strong winds and a few showers anticipated, the teams will be hoping the weather behaves for a full contest on Saturday as Nelson pace bowler ANNA GAGING steps into the Hinds squad for the first time since February 2021.

PHOTOSPORT

Gaging joins twin sister KATE GAGING in the 13 named for the weekend, strengthening a pace attack that includes Napier rookie ANIELA APPERLEY and the first two bowlers to have taken a hat-trick for the team: ROSEMARY MAIR (who took four wickets in four balls in Invercargill earlier this season, in the HBJ), and CLAUDIA GREEN who achieved the feat in the T20 format, in the Super Smash Elimination Final in Hamilton.

Allrounder HANNAH ROWE meanwhile heads in with 98 HBJ wickets for her team, poised to become just the fourth Hind in four decades to reach 100 one-day wickets in the green.

PHOTOSPORT

KERRY TOMLINSON remains sidelined by a shoulder fracture and THAMSYN NEWTON is unavailable, but an otherwise strong squad is ready to rumble at the Cello Basin Reserve, wth a 10.30am start time on Saturday, 10am on Sunday with livescoring and a free livestream for both games here at cdcricket.co.nz.

Following the Wellington weekend, the Hinds play their final two rounds of the regular season at home, at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park on 17 and 18 February against Northern Districts, with both matches free admission.

HALLYBURTON JOHNSTONE SHIELD

Cello Basin Reserve, Wellington v Wellington Blaze

ROUND 7 • 10.30am Saturday, 3 February 2024*

ROUND 8 • 10.00am Sunday, 4 February 2024

*Viv Stephens Memorial Trophy match

Livescoring and free livestream: www.cdcricket.co.nz

NATALIE Dodd — captain, wicketkeeper, Taranaki

ANIELA Apperley — Hawke’s Bay

GEORGIA Atkinson — Wairarapa

OCEAN Bartlett  — Wairarapa

FLORA Devonshire  — Hawke’s Bay

ANNA Gaging — Nelson

KATE Gaging — Nelson

CLAUDIA Green  — Nelson

MIKAELA Greig — Manawatū

ASHTUTI Kumar  — Manawatū

EMMA McLeod — Wairarapa

ROSEMARY Mair — Hawke’s Bay

HANNAH Rowe — Manawatū

Coach: JACOB Oram

Assistant Coach: DEEPAK Joon

Contracted players unavailable for selection

Thamsyn Newton — unavailable

Kerry Tomlinson — injury (shoulder)

 

 

Article added: Friday 2 February 2024