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Nine starts, eight wins and one washout: the Auckland Hearts barely missed a trick en route to lifting the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield for 2017/18.
Capping a superb campaign with one last win today against wooden spooners Northern Spirit — the title already in the bag after the previous day’s victory, the Hearts have now laid claim to the national one-day championship three times in the last four seasons.
Captain Maddy Green led from the front in her first season at the helm, finishing with 384 runs at 54.85.
Maia Bouchier in action today. PHOTOSPORT
Nineteen-year-old Maia Bouchier, who also represents Middlesex, and Katie Perkins also finished with 40-plus batting averages, and the Hearts steamroller kept rolling even after thumb surgery removed experienced WHITE FERN Perkins from their midst, confined to just three appearances this summer.
Openers Lauren Down (286 runs at 31.77) and Anna Peterson (221 at 31.57) made sure the Hearts got off to a good start more often than not while seamer Holly Huddleston was the runaway top wicket-taker with 21 wickets at 11.60.
Peterson claimed a five-fa in today's final round. PHOTOSPORT
Peterson’s off-spin also made a big impact with 12 wickets at 11.91, including a tidy 5-20 in today's final round, while young Bella Armstrong stepped up in her third season with 10 wickets at 11.60 including a career best four-fa on the final weekend, both with an outstanding economy rate conceding fewer than three runs per over on average.
Arlene Kelly’s steady influence over the attack continued with 11 wickets as the Hearts machine rolled on smoothly despite the retirement of long-serving captain and wicketkeeper Vic Lind at the end of last season.
Strength to strength for WHITE FERN Huddleston. PHOTOSPORT
Huddleston was the 2017/18 Hallyburton Johnstone Shield’s top wicket-taker overall, edging Wellington Blaze leg-spinner Deanna Doughty (20 at 13.35) who finished the one-day season strongly in Wellington, WHITE FERN and Otago Spark Leigh Kasperek snaring 19 at 16.63 in a challenging campaign for the southerners while Blaze’s Lucy Doolan celebrated 18 wickets at 16.38.
Kasperek did the business with bat and ball for the Sparks. PHOTOSPORT
Captain of the ousted defending champions, Frances Mackay, led her side with the ball to the tune of 15 wickets at 16.66 and 359 runs at 44.87 but it wasn’t enough for one of several teams that struggled to reconfigure after losing their top stars to teams across the Tasman during the Women’s Big Bash.
Maddy Green receives the historic Shield from NZC Board Member and former Hearts captain Ingrid Cronin-Knight. PHOTOSPORT
Kasperek’s innings of 92 in the final round today, part of a New Zealand domestic record stand for the fifth wicket, saw her sneak past Green as the top run-scorer in the competition with 409 at 45.44, while Magicians veteran Kate Ebrahim — hero of last season’s Final — came home with 366 runs at 44.87, just ahead of Mackay, Otago Sparks WHITE FERN Katey Martin (322 at 53.66) and Northern Spirit captain Natalie Dodd (321 at 32.10).
Dodd started well for the Spirit. PHOTOSPORT
The competition saw just one century raised — by Martin, but 45 half centuries with Green and Ebrahim (four each) accounting for eight of those between them.
Peterson, Jess Kerr (Wellington Blaze) and Doughty all pocketed five-wicket bags while the Auckland Hearts’ new wicketkeeper, Sarah Carnachan, topped the dismissals charts by a country mile with her 24 (20 catches, four stumpings) shading Jess McFadyen (Wellington Blaze) into second spot with 17 and Central Hind Kerry Tomlinson claiming 12 dismissals in her first season back with her old team.
Jess McFadyen adding to her stumpings tally. PHOTOSPORT
The women's national domestic summer is not over with the Women's Twenty20 only at its midpoint and all teams still very much in contention. The six contenders will slug it out in a supercharged tournament across 8-11 February in Lincoln.
Hallyburton Johnstone Shield final standings
