NZC WOMEN'S UNDER-21 National Tournament 2017
While a young and rebuilding Central Hinds team may be one of the punters’ lesser fancied squads on the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield and NZC Women’s T20 circuits, those same traits are making CD’s women’s age group teams a force to be reckoned with at national development and NZC age-group tournament level.
Double trouble: Twins Anna Gaging, Kate Gaging and twins Kate Sims and Gemma Sims all representing CD
Last year CD claimed the Women’s national development Under-15 title in Wanganui; two years ago they ran off with the National Under-21 trophy and now they’re again on top, unbeaten after the first three rounds and opening a big gap on the tournament points table on the rest of the country.
Their 2017 Under-21s include schoolgirls, two sets of twins, New Zealand indoor reps, and several youthful players who are already either newly minted or even established Central Hinds players at the senior level, captain Jess Watkin having last year been named CD’s player of the year at their end of season awards and Hawke’s Bay’s Rosemary Mair stepping up with bat and ball.
Now Whanganui’s off-spinning, big-hitting allrounder Watkin is in the record books after smashing a fast maiden one-day double century in round three at East Auckland’s Lloyd Elsmore Park — against one of the best attacks in the tournament.
Whirlwind Jess Watkin
Wellington’s attack was led by their young captain Amelia Kerr, the WHITE FERNS star prodigy and leg-spinner, and her elder sister Jess who likewise represents the strong Wellington Blaze squad at full rep level as well as the current crop of Under-21s.
Watkin smashed her even 200 off just 123 balls, her first hundred smashed from 84 deliveries then her brutal second hundred slaughtered from just 38 in a display that left even her own teammates speechless — setting up a landslide 176-run victory in which she also claimed 3-35 with the ball.
Scores
All up, Watkin slayed 20 boundaries and 11 sixes in her double century, however the fireworks were put out very next ball when she was caught by Amelia Kerr off the bowling of Xara Jetly in the 45th over.
Opening the response, Kerr’s run-a-ball 63 was the top score in reply as the CD cruised to an emphatic win.
In what’s believed to be a New Zealand first, two sets of twins were selected in the CD team for this year's tourney and New Zealand’s eminent cricket statistician and author of the New Zealand Cricket Almanack, Francis Payne, commented that while there has been plenty of examples of twins opposing each other in the same game, he could not recall two sets selected in the same side at this level.
“It probably has happened in lower-grade games,” said Payne, noting that it’s a global rarity across all sports, let alone cricket in New Zealand.
Twin sisters Gemma and Kate Sims, from Wairarapa, and Anna and Kate Gaging, from Nelson, are no strangers to all playing cricket together, however, the multi-talented foursome also having all been members of the champion CD development squad that won the national up-and-comers Under-15 title in January 2016.
The Gaging sisters are so similar in appearance that even their teammates struggle to tell them apart when they're not wearing their spikes, and were both also selected for New Zealand in this year’s Under-18 World Indoor Cricket Cup team, although did not ultimately make the trip to the Dubai event. Tall pace bowler Anna turned heads this week on opening day of the Under-21s tournament by bouncing out a wicket — an exciting sight in the women’s game at this level.
Telling them apart has been made slightly less confusing for the scorers as both Kate Gaging and Gemma Sims are in the squad as wicketkeepers. While the family bonds are eye-catching, there is also a significantly strong Central Hinds presence in and around the side, reflecting a growing strength in the heartland as the women’s game takes off around the country and the drive backstage of a few key, passionate individuals in hotspots like Wairarapa.
In the CD region this season there are a staggering number of twins coming through in the men's and women's game: in addition to the talented Gaging and Sims sisters, Nelson cricket has Thomas and David Zohrab and, at under-25 level, Jonty and Finn Raxworthy. Identical twins Whetu and Floyd na Nagara are from Manawatu and were on loan together to Horowhenua-Kapiti at this year's Chapple Cup while Wairarapa also has the Childs twins, Ethan and Quinn, who have both made their Wairarapa senior rep debut while still at school.
The NZC Women's National Under-21s tournament resumes at Lloyd Elsmore Park tomorrow (Tuesday).
The Central Districts Under-21 side in Auckland, Kate Gaging is at the rear of the line-up third from left while identical twin Anna is in the centre front; double centurion and captain Jess Watkin is in the back row, at left
