2023/24 HALLYBURTON JOHNSTONE SHIELD
Round 1
Saturday, 18 November 2023
Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North
CENTRAL HINDS beat CANTERBURY MAGICIANS by 5 wickets [DLS]
Central Hinds : 4 points
Cantebury Magicians: 0 points
Selected milestones
Thamsyn Newton - Central Hinds debut (previously: Canterbury Magicians, Wellington Blaze)
Georgia Atkinson - career best List A batting (89, previous best 71 not out)
Mikaela Greig - career best List A batting (84 not out, previous best 65)
Mikaela Greig & Georgia Atkinson: Highest fourth-wicket partnership for Central Hinds in matches against Canterbury Magicians
Georgia Atkinson and Mikaela Greig | all images: PHOTOSPORT
Nobody told the Central Hinds that chasing down 200-plus on a rainy afternoon against last year's Hallyburton Johnstone Shield runners-up wasn't easy.
That's exactly what they did to take a win off the Canterbury Magicians as the 2023/24 NZC one-day season got underway on a weather affected November Saturday.
Palmerston North had turned on some sunshine for the opening day of the women's Domestic season, but the blue sky betrayed a brisk wind that heralded the wet weather that was to drift in later that afternoon.
Hinds captain Nat Dodd won the toss and elected to bowl, a decision that bore early fruit as the Magicians collapsed to 90/5 by the halfway mark of the innings.
Thamsyn Newton | PHOTOSPORT
Both teams had a fresh feel about them, the Hinds with ex-Blaze matchwinner Thamsyn Newton on debut (a champion the previous season with the Blaze), and their trio of promising youngsters in Emma McLeod, Flora Devonshire and Ocean Bartlett keeping some familiar names out of the line-up.
The Magicians were meanwhile delighted to have their iconic veteran Frankie Mackay back on the park, but the captaincy remained now in the hands of Laura Hughes.
Izzy Sharp (above) and left-hand batter Harriet Graham were their young ones to watch, with Graham making just her second HBJ appearance, at first drop.
But she was soon the victim of a vicious piece of in-swing from Claudia Green, the wickets shared around the Hinds' attack until WHITE FERN Hannah Rowe polished things off at the end of the innings to finish with 3/47.
By then, the Magicians had staged a recovery with the bat. Jodie Dean top-scored with 49 at seven, and she shared good partnerships of 60 with Sharp (36) and 43 with the ever dangerous late order weapon Lea Tahuhu (a quick 20).
Despite the horror start, they made it through their allotted 50 overs, and will have been happy, in the circumstances, to see 210/8 on the tins.
Rain early in the Hinds' chase will have had the Magicians even happier, because a tidy start from the old firm of Tahuhu and Gabby Sullivan (3/48) meant the Hinds were well behind the DLS par score when the rain arrived.
What's more, the significant combined experience of captain Dodd and Newton had been removed at 22/2, Sullivan claiming both the big wickets before the players left the oval.
The hosts had a nervous wait in store before the umpires decided play would continue, with the target revised slightly to 208 off 48 overs.
Georgia Atkinson resumed on 14 with Hannah Rowe, who was lost at 37/3.
The Magicians would be made to wait a further 22 overs before they had anything further to celebrate, as Atkinson and the powerful Mikaela Greig, on her home ground, settled in for an effectively match-winning partnership of 145.
Georgia Atkinson top-scored with a career best | PHOTOSPORT
They would come within just a few whiskers of breaking the 2007/08 Hinds record for the fourth wicket that remains safely in the hands of former Hinds WHITE FERNS Sara McGlashan and Aimee Watkins.
It took Tahuhu to stop them carrying on to the end, but the deer had bolted by the time Atkinson was caught - just 11 runs shy of what would have been a maiden century.
Atkinson would have to settle for a career best 89, leaving Greig to finish the job with Rosemary Mair for the four overs it took - the hosts ultimately cruising to victory after 43 overs.
New Hinds coach Jacob Oram had a first-up win in his home town, the Hinds were second on the table (behind the Otago Sparks who had meanwhile blitzed the Blaze for a bonus point) and the rematch in Sunday's round two was earmarked as a must-see.
