Central Hinds faced Northern Brave in the sixth match of the Women's Super Smash 2023-24 on Wednesday, December 27, at Fitzherbert Park in Palmerston North. Central Hinds won this game by a mere margin of six runs.
The Hinds have climbed the top of the points table with two wins in two matches with a net run rate (NRR) of +0.26. They have displaced Wellington Blaze, who are now ranked second with a Net Run Rate of +1.150.
Canterbury women have slipped to third place and have won and lost one game each, along with an NRR of +0.250. Otago women are still ranked fourth and have an NRR of -0.550.
Auckland Hearts and Northern Brave are still looking for their first win of the season. They are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, in the table. Auckland have a NRR of -0.550, while Northern Brave have -0.258.
Late flourish by Georgia Atkinson propels Central Hinds' to win over Northern Brave
Central Hinds won the toss against Northern Brave and elected to bat. They had a slow start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals and managed to cross the 100-run mark in the 16th over and lost four wickets.
Georgia Atkinson and Flora Devonshire added 29 runs for the 7th wicket off the last 13 deliveries. This helped the Northern Brave post a total of 141 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Jess Watkin and MW Downes took two wickets each for the Northern side.
The Brave lost their first wicket for just four runs. Nensi Patel and Jess Watkin added 46 runs for the second wicket and took the team’s total to 50 runs. The team later lost four more wickets for just 25 runs.
Marina Lamplough played a fine knock of 38 runs off 32 deliveries, but it went in vain. Northern Brave required 16 runs off the last over to win. But they managed just nine runs and lost the match by six runs.
Atkinson won the Player of the Match award for her knock of 26 runs off 17 deliveries. Ashtuti Kumar was the pick of the bowlers for the Central Hinds and took two wickets for 19 runs in four overs.
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