2022/23 HALLYBURTON JOHNSTONE SHIELD
Round 10
Sunday, 26 February 2023
Colin Maiden Park, Auckland
AUCKLAND HEARTS v NORTHERN DISTRICTS
MATCH ABANDONED WITHOUT A BALL BOWLED
All images | PHOTOSPORT
It was supposed to be an emotion-soaked Sunday as the Auckland Hearts capped their Hallyburton Johnstone Shield season with a last hurrah for retiring legends Katie Perkins and Holly Huddleston, against Huddleston's old team Northern Districts.
But the only thing soaked was the ground.
Both sides had already been bumped out of the running for this season's Final, knobbled by a washout on the previous day following heavy overnight rain, and made up for the disappointment with an impromptu friendly 40-over fixture at Cornwall Park instead.
The Hearts had been hoping for one last trot in the sunshine of Colin Maiden Park to give their retiring legends the official send-off they deserved.
Perkins was their most capped player in history: she finished with 131 Hearts one-day caps. Huddleston wasn't far behind, with 108 Hearts and 143 overall HBJ appearances.
They both represented the WHITE FERNS and between them played 398 List A games overall: a truckload of experience that will not be replaced by the Hearts in a hurry.
Famously fast in the field and between the wickets, Perkins retires as the Auckland Hearts' second highest all-time run-scorer, with her 3,321 runs in the HBJ just a small distance behind the record held by 1990s/2000s legend Emily Drumm (3,462).
Perkins and Drumm are the only Hearts to have scored more than 3K one-day runs for the team and, along with Rebecca Rolls, are the only players to have scored four List A centuries for Auckland. Perkins contributed more half centuries than anyone in Hearts history.
There will be few surprises that Perkins retires as the most successful fielder in Hearts history - with 60 catches in the HBJ alone, almost double that of the next best player (Maddy Green). Her name is also inked into the Auckland fourth, fifth, sixth (with Huddleston), ninth and 10th wicket record partnerships.
Allrounder Huddleston retires as one of the team's top one-day wicket-takers with 122, equal in second spot with Paula Gruber. Only Natalie Scripps (158) took more for the Hearts in one-day cricket.
Huddleston became the only Heart to take a one-day hat-trick last weekend, a regular contributor with an HBJ career best of 4-22 in 2013/14, and her impressive 21 wickets in the 2017/18 summer ranking among the team's best.
In the T20 format, Huddleston retires as the Hearts' top all-time wicket-taker with 73 victims. With spinner Anna Peterson, she holds the Hearts record of 16 victims in a single season, and her 4/21 this season was the best by any Hearts pace bowler in the format.
With 96 T20 caps for Auckland, only Perkins could top that with 113.
Perkins finished as the Hearts' top all-time T20 batter with 2,236 runs, nearly double than the next best - Lauren Down. Her nine T20 half centuries for the side is another record, underscoring her value in the middle order.
And yep, no one took more than Perky's 38 T20 catches, the dynamo in the field also one of the most dangerous arms in the game when it came to a runout.
Perkins played 73 One-Day Internationals for the WHITE FERNS between 2011/12 and 2020/21, and 55 T20 Internationals for the WHITE FERNS as well.
Huddleston represented the WHITE FERNS from 2013/14 to 2020/21, playing 36 ODIs and 16 T20is, with three ODI five-wicket bags in her international career and a best of 5/25 against South Africa in2016/17.
