All six of New Zealand’s top teams crack into action today as three Twenty20 encounters open an intense women’s domestic season — with the significant lure of a ticket to the ICC World Twenty20 at the end of summer.
WHITE FERNS coach Haidee Tiffen has made it clear that there are incentives aplenty for players pushing at WHITE FERNS selection — and that incumbents must therefore ensure they defend their spot.
Today’s three opening-round T20 matches will unfold this afternoon in:
• Auckland (Auckland Hearts v Otago Spark, Eden Park Outer Oval, 3pm)
• Hastings (Central Hinds v Canterbury Magicians, Cornwall Park, 3.45pm)
• Wellington (Wellington Blaze v Northern Spirit, Karori Park, 4pm)
All matches are livescored here on www.blackcaps.co.nz and the round notably features the coaching debut of WHITE FERNS legend Emily Drumm as head coach of Northern Spirit as she looks to turn around the fortunes of a young team.
Running alongside the Twenty20 warfare is the Women’s One-Day competition. The 2015/16 season consists of five rounds of one-day matches, the six teams to play each other twice, followed by a Women’s One-Day Final (13 February 2016).
The first two one-dayers of the season will be played this Saturday and Sunday, between the same sides and at the same venues, for three days of back-to-back cricket in all.
With the six sides playing each other just once in order to make the Twenty20 Final (14 February 2016), it leaves little room for a bad day at the office in a cut-throat format, in a key international season for T20 cricket.
New Zealand women’s domestic cricket dates back to the 1935/36 season, with Wellington Blaze the defending Twenty20 titleholders and the Auckland Hearts the reigning One-Day champions.
2015/16 Women’s Twenty20 schedule
2015/16 Women’s One-Day schedule
