Dunner stunner! Sparks do it again

The Otago Sparks fended off a powerful challenge from the Auckland Hearts - and a record-breaking Maddy Green century - to defend the national one-day Hallyburton Johnstone Shield in a breath-taking last-ball thriller.

Finals don’t come much closer than this, after a career-best century from Auckland Hearts captain Maddy Green put the odds on the Hearts at halftime in a classic 50-over showdown.

Dunedin has continued to be century city over NZC’s national Finals long weekend, Green’s 126 in 123 balls following Jimmy Neesham’s match-winning 128 off 82 balls for sibling team the Auckland Aces in yesterday’s Ford Trophy Elimination Final.

But this time it turned into heartbreak city for the Aucklanders who had been so close to nailing their first Hallyburton Johnstone Shield title since 2020.

The killer was an unbeaten century stand for the seventh wicket between the remarkable Eden Carson and PJ Watkins that hauled in a demanding run chase against a death bowling attack that starred uncapped WHITE FERN Bree Illing (2/42) at her finest.

Watkins (47 not out off 60 balls) and Carson (59 not out off 43, her third fifty for the Sparks) came together at 190/6 in the 36th over when the Sparks still needed 102 to win with just three wickets in hand.

Absolute scenes in Dunedin as the @otagocricket Sparks win the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield off the very last ball! Let @SportNationNZ's Tom Bartlett call you through it as we relive the moment. #HBJShield pic.twitter.com/hQ2dMqjnSP

— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 1, 2025

Carson, who says she hasn’t hit a six since the second season of her career, smashed two of them off youngster Anika Todd to claw back the run chase to a run-a-ball after the Hearts had exerted brilliant pressure with the ball through the middle stages.

What followed was heart-in-the-mouth stuff for both teams with the Sparks needing 16 to win off the last two overs, then eight off the last over, then two off the last ball.

Illing had delivered a fierce 48th over that conceded just five runs, but the Sparks pair found eight off the 49th and 50th to get across the line by a whisker as Watkins heaved at the last delivery, narrowly beat the fielder, waited then scrambled back for a second run as Carson came charging through in time to beat an attempted runout that would have tied the game.

Cue repeat scenes from the Sparks’ thrilling win in the previous year’s Final at the same ground as a wave of blue and yellow sped out to the middle, while the Hearts’ heads sunk in collective disbelief.

Earlier in the game, they had had so much to celebrate.

With a class knock of her own in a standout century stand, captain Green had become the first Auckland Heart to score three centuries in a single Hallyburton Johnstone Shield season — adding to the record she’d already broken in this campaign for most runs in a Hearts one-day season.

MBUTCHER

She also equalled the record for most centuries (four) in a Hearts one-day career, in the process, a milestone she now shares with Rebecca Rolls, Emily Drumm, Katie Perkins and her partner in the Final now being played out on a warm and humid Dunedin afternoon, Lauren Down.

Green had won the toss following a 45-minute delay for a damp outfield on the first day of autumn and came in at 30/1, at the start of the seventh over. She stayed at her post until the last ball of the innings, and in that time dominated a 182-run fourth-wicket stand with Down in a strong total of 291/5 from their 50 overs.

Already missing WHITE FERNS Suzie Bates and Bella James through injury, the Sparks had not got off to such a happy start in the day. They suffered a big, late scratching when gutted allrounder and WHITE FERN Hayley Jensen was ruled out that morning by a sore hip.

Emma Black would open the attack with spinner Carson and the impressive attack bowler made a tight start. Carson meanwhile suffered some early tap, but soon bounced back to have opener Saachi Shahri caught at the end of the sixth over — just two balls after Shahri have survived a dropped catch off Carson on 8*.

Cue Green striding to the middle for the remainder, in a textbook knock that steadily gathered pace with some of the biggest sixes of her career unleashed at the death.

But she had soon lost a couple of potent partners. Izzy Gaze got a start, but feathered a catch to keeper Polly Inglis at 45/2. Brooke Halliday was another big loss as Sparks captain Felicity Robertson (2/37) picked up a handy brace.

But it only ushered in the formidable Down at 79/3 to join Green for the next 29 overs, the pair calmly and methodically reconstructing their team’s innings.

They closing in on Katie Perkins’s and Anna Peterson’s Hearts fourth-wicket record of 198* when Down suddenly looped up an easy catch to Anna Browning, off Caitlin Blakely, at 261/4 — ending her own hopes of a century. She departed for a run-a-ball 90, in the 48th over.

Having already reached three figures off 112 balls, Green put her foot down at death as easily as the Sparks spilled desperate chances.

She danced down the wicket to slam two sixes off Carson’s expensive last over, before being caught in the deep in the same mode, off the last ball of the innings. Ironically it was Watkins who took a good low catch, teaming up with Carson not for the last time in the game.

How crucial that catch would prove, but then, every moment, wicket and run in this classic Final would be crucial.

Green exceeded her previous career best of 124 (against the Canterbury Magicians, just a week earlier) by one run. It was her seventh List A century overall, and meant the Sparks would need almost a run a ball if they were to chase down 292 in their serendipitous home Final.

The Heart’s young swing star Illing, fresh off having been named in a WHITE FERNS squad for the first time, gave the visitors a top start, returning 2/20 off her opening five-over spell — with Saffron Wilson and Olivia Gain falling victim to her inside the first four overs. She looked to have grown another metre in height.

Brooke Halliday also fought hard with the ball for Auckland, returning a tidy 3/23 off her seven overs.

The Sparks needed to emulate their adversaries with a partnership of substance to recover, and Inglis and captain Robertson were up for the challenge.

Adventurous Inglis sped to a run-a-ball half century, while Robertson anchored from the top.

The captain would reach her own fifty in 62 balls as the third-wicket stand grew to 148, before Robertson on 53 was deceived by Halliday’s change of pace, and the score became 156/3.

The last wicket has fallen at 8/2.

The onus now fell on Inglis but on 86 she became a second huge wicket for Halliday, off her following over. Now the Hearts were right back in the game and, after a couple more wickets amid some tight work and pressure from the attack, it took those bold hits from Carson to keep the Sparks in the fight.

Carson swung hard for her two sixes but just as crucially she found the singles, twos and three as she scampered between the wickets - in a thrilling stand that came perilously close to breaking the Sparks' seventh-wicket record of 107.

The Sparks had needed their last 44 runs off 30 balls, but the pair hauled it in, and the Sparks celebrated their second Final of the summer with the tightest of four-wicket wins.

MBUTCHER