2023/24 HALLYBURTON JOHNSTONE SHIELD
Round 5
Saturday, 9 December 2023
Queen's Park, Invercargill
CENTRAL HINDS beat OTAGO SPARKS by 14 runs [DLS]
Central Hinds : 4 points
Otago Sparks: 0 points
Selected milestones
Aniela Apperley : List A and Central Hinds debut
Saffron Wilson: maiden List A century
Rosemary Mair: maiden List A five-wicket bag (6/41)
Rosemary Mair : hat-trick
Rosemary Mair : double hat-trick (four wickets in four balls) - first bowler to achieve this in Hallyburton Johnstone Shield history, second instance worldwide in women's List A Domestic competitions
Rosemary Mair : first Central Hinds hat-trick (all formats)
Rosemary Mair | MBUTCHER
The Central Hinds have rebounded in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield after their WHITE FERNS seamer Rosemary Mair had the best day of her List A career.
Heading into the match at Invercargill's Queens Park against the Otago Sparks with a one-day career best of 3/21 from 70 matches, Mair finished it with 6/41, including a double hat-trick - the popular term for four wickets in four balls. It was the first instance by anyone in the history of the competition.
Moving the ball through the air and off the seam, Mair claimed Olivia Gain, PJ Watkins and Emma Black as her hat-trick victims, with Black's wicket providing her maiden five-wicket bag as well.
The rare hat-trick (the first in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield since Holly Huddleston's ground-breaking feat for the Auckland Hearts earlier this year) was split across the last two balls of the 35th over and the first of the 37th.
Mair struck again next ball, bowling Sophie Oldershaw to complete not only the first hat-trick in any format in the Central Hinds' history (including first-class matches), but the first 'double'.
After a rain-reduced and interrupted chase, the Hinds went on to win by 14 runs (DLS) without losing a wicket, but for much of the morning things had been tracking well for the Sparks after former Nelson rep, opener Saffron Wilson smashed past her previous career best to celebrate her maiden century, with 109 off just 97 balls.
PHOTOSPORT
Wilson shared a 91-run stand with captain Felicity Robertson and a 117-run stand with Polly Inglis (60 off 49) after Mair had struck early, twice.
The Sparks seemed in total control.
But after Thamysn Newton accounted for both Wilson and Inglis in quick succession, Mair took charge from the next over.
Captain Natalie Dodd's diving one-handed catch helped provide the first of her flurry of wickets that led to the Sparks suddenly being bowled out in the 38th over for 246.
With weather interruptions, the Hinds initially found themselves behind on the DLS, but made amends when they got back on.
Openers Dodd (42 not out) and Georgia Atkinson (43 not out) pushed the equation high enough to collect four points from the DLS win.
An unusual match, the one-day win took the Hinds level with the Sparks on 10 points, both six points behind the leaders, the Auckland Hearts at the halfway mark of the tight competition.
