The Wellington Blaze completed a well-executed run chase against the Northern Spirit to collect their third win in the Action Cricket Twenty20 competition. Chasing 95 for victory, they did it in style and had nine wickets to spare.
The Blaze put Northern into bat and were rewarded immediately, as Sian Ruck trapped Natalie Dodd lbw for just one. However Hannah Trollip (18) and Anna Peterson (36) steadied the ship for the Spirit and put on 59 for the second wicket.
When both established batsman went out in quick succession things turned ugly quickly for Northern as they slumped from 64 for one to 81 for five. At the end of the 20 overs the Spirit had posted a score of 94, having lost nine wickets along the way.
The pick of the Wellington bowlers was Ruck, who picked up figures of two for 12 from four overs. Lucy Doolan had similar figures of 2-14 from her four overs.
In reply the Blaze got themselves on to the front foot thanks to an opening partnership of 52 between Lucy Doolan (37*) and Megan Wakefield (18).
With five overs to go the Blaze needed 25 runs for victory and it proved to be no problem for last year’s runners- up. Doolan and Sarah Taylor (23*) secured victory for Wellington on the first ball of the 20th over, as they crushed the Spirit by nine wickets.
Northern’s bowlers did well to keep the economy down, but couldn’t put the Blaze under enough pressure to pick up regular wickets.
