STATISTICS: Milestones and statistics from round four of the Action cricket twenty20 and one-day competition.
The highlight of this round of the Action Cricket Twenty20 matches was undoubtably the first century scored in the New Zealand Women's T20 competition. Rachel Priest finished with 106 not out for the Central Hinds against the Otago Sparks with her hundred coming off 73 balls. The previous record was 99 not out made by Sophie Devine for the Wellington Blaze against the Northern Spirit at Hamilton last season. Coming in at number four, Devine was denied her century by running out of overs.
In addition to scoring a century Priest also made three stumpings in the Sparks innings. Only Victoria Lind has made more stumpings in an innings with four for Auckland Hearts, also against the Sparks.
After having not bowled in her first six Action Cup Twenty20 matches Kate Baxter was finally given a bowl and responded by taking 3 for 8 off 2 overs in the first match of the double header then went even better by finishing with 4 for 11 off her full complement of 4 overs in the second match. The Central Hinds will be ruing not having used her earlier.
After Priest scored her century in the first match, it was Katie Martin and Suzie Bates who dominated the second match hitting their second century opening partnership for the Otago Sparks. They have formed the most prolific partnership in the Action Cup T20 competition having also shared three half-century partnerships.
In Christchurch Amy Satterthwaite scored 61 in the first match for the Canterbury Magicians against the Northern Spirit to beat her previous best against them only for Janet Brehaut to go one better in the second match as she scored career-best 62 not out. Nicola Browne also scored a personal best when scoring 58 in the Spirit's reply, the first half-century for the Spirit against the Magicians.
Browne shared stands of 54 and 53 with Anna Peterson in the two matches in Christchurch which followed on from the unbeaten 55 they shared against the Otago Sparks in their previous match to take it to three half-century partnerships in a row by the pair.
Browne then shared in a Northern record fourth wicket partnership of 69 with Natalie Dodd in the second match. This was also the highest fourth wicket stand by any team against the Magicians.
The first match in Wellington was washed out but in the second match Stafanie Taylor and Maddie Green shared the first half-century partnership for the Auckland Hearts against the Wellington Blaze adding 61 for the second wicket to
set up an Auckland win and a probable place in the Action Cricket T20 final.
In the Action Cricket Cup Nicola Browne made it three half-centuries in a row in matches for the Northern Spirit against the Canterbury Magicians with her innings of 68 at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. In fact Browne has taken a particular liking to the Magicians bowlers with a sequence of scores of 63, 54*, 25, 33, 93*, 81 and 68 in her last seven innings.
Browne also took her career aggregate to 2,910 and so she is now bearing down on Emily Drumm's all-time run-scoring record of 2,993 runs.
Mandy Godliman has shown a similar liking for the Northern Spirit bowling with scores of 93, 2, 139 and 50 in her last four matches for the Magicians against them.
In the same game Frankie Mackay scored 31 before being brilliantly caught by Anna Petersen and in the process passed 1,000 runs in one day matches for the Magicians. She is the eighth Canterbury player to achieve this milestone and the thirty fourth all told.
The second of the two wickets that Abby Burrows claimed against the Otago Sparks was her 100th in Action Cricket Cup matches. Only Aimee Watkins, with 119 wickets, has taken more for the Hinds while Burrows is the eighth player overall to reach this milestone.
Sarah McGlashan became just the second Central Hinds player after Aimee Watkins to reach 100 one day matches when compiling 75 against the Otago Sparks at Dunedin. She is just the tenth player to reach 100 Action Cricket Cup matches. However her efforts were in vain as the Hinds were beaten by 1 run.
This was just the third match to be decided by the narrowest of winning margins. The Sparks themselves were beaten by the Wellington Blaze by 1 run in 1998-99 while this was the second occasion that the Hinds have lost by that margin having been beaten by the Canterbury Magicians in 2001-02.
